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2009 World Series of Poker – Ante Up for Africa Pictures

AlCantHang — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:41:22 +0000

Each year before the World Series of Poker Main Event, the poker elite, pro athletes, celebrities, movies stars, and recording artists descend upon the Amazon Room to play poker in the Ante Up for Africa charity tournament. They were here to raise both money and awareness for the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The tournament was hosted by poker legend Annie Duke and Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle.

Some of the celebrities making an appearance were Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Alexander, Brad Garrett, Sarah Silverman, Jennifer Tilly, and rapper Nelly. Athletes Marlon Shirley, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Mike Tyson were also battling it out. Of course all the top poker pros donated their time and money to the cause.

I’ve posted a few pictures from the day for your entertainment.

Mike Matusow and Chau Giang kid around during the tournament

Good Will Hunting co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck hang with Marco Traniello before the tournament began

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack meets with Don Cheadle

More photos after the jump:

This tournament was a little more laid back than most. Jennifer Harman and Phil Gordon enjoy their time at the tables.

Don Cheadle, Jennifer Harman, and rapper Nelly before the tournament

Actor Joe Reitman plays in the tournament. In the background you can see part of the huge rail full of fans who came out to see their favorite stars and pros.

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Paralympic gold medalist Marlon Shirley

David Singer and Sarah Silverman

Charles Barkley joins poker power couple Marco Traniello and Jenn Harman

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Ante Up for Africa Pictures

2009 World Series of Poker Day 35 – Coin Flip for the H.O.R.S.E.

AlCantHang — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:45:18 +0000

Eight players will take their seats for the final table of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Champioship today and four of those players are members of Team Full Tilt. Carrying the flag today will be Vitaly Lunkin who starts the day second in chips followed by Huck Seed, Chau Giang, and Erik Seidel. With 50% of the remaining players, we’re coin flipping to add an eight bracelet to the FTP count. As expected it will be a stacked final table with 18 bracelets amongst the 8 players.

Erik Siedel – 8 wins
Huck Seed – 4 wins
Chau Giang – 3 wins
Vitaly Lunkin – 2 wins
Ville Wahlbeck – 1 win

Lunkin and Wahlbeck have a chance to add to the number of multiple bracelet winners at the 2009 World Series of Poker. Four players have accomplished that feat this year, it could move us into uncharted waters trying to tie/pass the record of six multiple winners in 2003.

There will also be two other bracelet awarded by the end of the day. Eric “Rizen” Lynch is the premier name remaining in the Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em Event. Allie Prescott and Tournament Director extraordinaire Matt Savage are lining up to win some WSOP gold in the $1,500 Stud/8 tournament.

Today brings us the final “open” tournament before the Ante Up for Africa and Main Event. The $5,000 6-max No Limit Hold’em should draw a nice crowd of grinders and pros looking at their next to last shot at WSOP glory. Those who have not had the best series so far may turn desperate, others will be looking to add more to their 2009 WSOP earnings.

The halls of the Amazon Room have begun their final transformations. Over the last 5 weeks things have been pretty standard. Munchie stations, a few bar setups for adult beverages, the odd booth featuring bikini clad girls to distract the grinders. The Main Event is right around the corner so we’re seeing more displays and hucksters. The Rio staff has begun preparing the convention center for the World Series of Poker Life Expo. I may be able to do an entire post just reviewing each booth.

The clock is ticking for our players this year. Time to make moves.

Restart chip counts after the jump:

Event #49 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship
Buyin: $50,000
Number of Entries: 95
Net Prize Pool: $4,560,000
First Place Prize: $1,276,806
Total Spots Paid Out: 16
Players Remaining: 8

1	Erik Sagstrom	3,675,000
2	Vitaly Lunkin	2,490,000
3	David Bach	2,345,000
4	John Hanson	1,700,000
5	Huck Seed	1,380,000
6	Chau Giang	1,075,000
7	Erik Seidel	965,000
8	Ville Wahlbeck	645,000

Event #52 Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em
Buyin: $3,000
Number of Entries: 854
Net Prize Pool: $2,357,040
First Place Prize: $506,800
Total Spots Paid Out: 81
Players Remaining: 16

1	Jason Dewitt	1,599,000
2	Alex Millar	1,006,000
3	Karga Holt	715,000
4	Michael Noda	641,000
5	Joe Patrick	538,000
6	Jorg Peisert	477,000
7	Benjamin Gilbert	421,000
8	Michael Katz	356,000
9	Jason Somerville	320,000
10	Warren Watson	320,000
11	Max Greenwood	294,000
12	Thomas Applegate	279,000
13	Eric Lynch	230,000
14	An Tran	216,000
15	William Erickson	173,000
16	Vladimir Kochelaevskiy	168,000

Event #53 Seven Card Stud/8
Buyin: $1,500
Number of Entries: 466
Net Prize Pool: $636,090
First Place Prize: $159,048
Total Spots Paid Out: 48
Players Remaining: 14

1	Brian Swinford	292,000
2	Chad Brown	284,000
3	William Kohler	230,000
4	Max Ster	216,000
5	David Halpern	215,000
6	Allie Prescott	202,400
7	Richie Sklar	134,000
8	Zak Gilbert	110,000
9	Matt Savage	106,000
10	Jack Rosenfeldt	106,000
11	Jose Paz	82,000
12	Christian Toboc	77,000
13	Vince Burgio	40,000
14	Mike Krescanto	27,000

Event #54 No Limit Hold’em
Buyin: $1,500
Number of Entries: 2,818
Net Prize Pool: $3,846,570
First Place Prize: $673,276
Total Spots Paid Out: 297
Players Remaining: 376

Top 50 chip stacks:

1	Christensen, Jon	160,800
2	Howe, Jody	126,600
3	Gall, Zsombor	114,300
4	Merchan, Henry	108,700
5	Gray, Craig	104,300
6	Boivin, Donald	100,700
7	Morneau, Joe	100,300
8	Benjosef, Nadav	98,900
9	Hayes, Eric	98,400
10	Arias, Jorge	96,200
11	Bonita, Christopher	96,000
12	Hodges, Jason	87,100
13	Lambertz, Felix	85,400
14	Tsinis, Arkadiy	84,800
15	Rosini, Kevin	84,700
16	Lee, Sanford	84,400
17	Desai, Kiran	79,900
18	Musalem, Francisco	76,800
19	Gomes, Alexandre	76,000
20	Keys, James	76,000
21	Nguyen, Dangkhoa	75,000
22	Palmer, Ben	74,700
23	Veckey, Tony	74,400
24	Falkenstein, Danny	72,300
25	Keating, Alex	72,100
26	Pomerantsev, Sergey	72,000
27	Pfeifer, Randy	70,700
28	Seliga, Eddie	70,000
29	Cohen, Jamie	67,400
30	Outram, Stephen	65,400
31	Fuller, Thomas	64,700
32	Fritzer, Rip	64,600
33	Knodler, Eric	64,000
34	Teng, Andrew	63,800
35	Tkachenko, Alexey	63,300
36	Finlay, Robert	62,800
37	Cote, Daniel	62,400
38	Motsakov, Pasi	60,600
39	Yegorov, Dmitriy	60,000
40	David, Jaoui	59,800
41	Wong, Brandon	59,800
42	Chung, Vincent	59,300
43	Monteveci, James	59,100
44	Naidoo, Nersan	59,100
45	Ly, Dau “Tommy”	59,000
46	Rowan, Charles	58,300
47	Ratcliff, Mike	58,200
48	Kweskin, Aaron	58,000
49	Larcheveque, Eric	57,700
50	Nguyen, Ut	57,000

Event #55 Deuce to Seven Draw
Buyin: $2,500
Number of Entries: 257
Net Prize Pool: $591,100
First Place Prize: $165,521
Total Spots Paid Out: 24
Players Remaining: 73

Top 50 chip stacks:

1	Ewenstein, Adam	71,800
2	Peltekci, Mike	65,100
3	Fuller, Rick	55,200
4	Jennings, Terrance	54,100
5	Fernandez, Jacobo	53,900
6	Lee, Jasper	46,600
7	Rodman, Blair	46,500
8	Tanaka, Masayoshi	46,400
9	Lord, Kris	42,800
10	Le, Tuan	42,000
11	Sitar, Dustin	41,800
12	Fisler, Ryan	40,800
13	Mosseri, Abraham	39,100
14	Quach, Daniel	38,800
15	Zalewski, Hertzel	38,400
16	Dykes, Douglas	37,800
17	Gualtieri, Joe	35,400
18	Smith, Justin	33,700
19	Hedlund, Peter	33,600
20	Libson, Brad	32,900
21	Rodriguez, Miguel	32,100
22	Duvall, Jeffrey	31,600
23	Juanda, John	31,500
24	Sheikhan, Shawn	31,100
25	Habib, Hasan	29,800
26	Vallo, Martin	29,500
27	Isra, Roland	28,400
28	Corpuz, Martin	27,800
29	Porter, Rep	27,300
30	Franklin, Tom	27,200
31	Dariush, Imani	25,900
32	Cohen, Claude	25,800
33	Schneider, Julie	25,700
34	Filippi, Amnon	25,700
35	McC, Tom	24,900
36	Luong, Gioi	24,800
37	Negreanu, Daniel	24,100
38	Sung, Steve	23,900
39	Lester, Jason	23,800
40	Sarkeshik, Ali	23,400
41	Peeples, Brad	23,100
42	Baxter, Billy	23,100
43	Shoreman, Jon	23,100
44	Sklansky, David	22,600
45	Saltus. Brian	22,400
46	Le, Nam	22,000
47	Poels, Pat	21,900
48	Zhu, Yueqi	21,200
49	Ankenman, Jerrod	20,400
50	Duvall, Jeff	20,300

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker Day 35 – Coin Flip for the H.O.R.S.E.

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2009 World Series of Poker – Week 4 in Pictures

AlCantHang — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:04:59 +0000

Another week has gone by at the 2009 World Series of Poker and things are starting to ramp up. Full Tilt was unable to add to it’s collection of WSOP bracelets but FTP blogger Michael Craig and pro Vitaly Lunkin both put in second place showings. The week started with the NHL Stanley Cup coming to the Amazon Room and ending with the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. kick off. The schedule was lighter than the first three weeks but there was plenty of action to capture.

I present to you the week in pictures from the Full Tilt angle.

The first is by far my favorite photo from the 2009 World Series of Poker. Photographer extraordinaire BJ Nemeth has been capturing some incredible images this year. This photo was taken from atop the bracelet ceremony stage as Phil Ivey picked up his 7th World Series of Poker bracelet. It illustrates the massive amount of players, fans, and media Ivey draws to any event. Click to enlarge and enjoy. More images after the jump.

Photo credit: BJ Nemeth

Rafe Furst playing in Event #38 $2,000 Limit Hold’em. Furst was a rare site in the early portions of the WSOP but has begun picking up steam. He would go on to finish just short of the final two tables in 19th place.

Kristy Gazes and Amanda “Mandy B” Baker playing in Event #39 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em. Gazes had a tough run to fall short of the money but Baker would end the day with her second cash of the WSOP.

Full Tilt pros Steve Zolotow and Chau Giang play in the Pot Limit Omaha World Championship. Neither would figure in the final payouts but other Tilters were up and down the board. Josh Arieh (7th) , Chau Giang (11th), Howard Lederer (12th), Marcus Golser (20th), and Erick Lindgren (27th) would all finish in the money. Vitaly Lunkin lost a heads up battle with Matt Graham for his second bracelet of the year.

Phil Ivey facing off with Erik Cajelais in Event #41 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout. Ivey had an excellent chance at his third bracelet of the year. He needed to win a 6-handed Round 2 table and 5-handed final table but was unable to overcome some early troubles in the second round. Barney Boatman, David “The Dragon” Pham and Ivey finished 6th, 7th, and 8th respectively.

These two pictures side by side give you a little feeling of what it must be like to be sitting at the table with Ivey and subject to his stare downs.

Howard Lederer takes some time during the Mixed Hold’em event to sign some autographs for fans on the rail. Lederer has 3 cashes during the 2009 World Series of Poker to date. Five Full Tilt pros cashed in the tournament but unable to make the final table. Allen Cunningham, Eric Froehlich, Andy Bloch, Eli Elezra, and Jeff Madsen.

Erick Lindgren playing in the Seven Card Stud Hi-Low World Championship. Lindgren did not make the money in this event but he has 4 cashes in the 2009 World Series of Poker.

If a cage match broke out in the center of the Amazon Room, good money would go on both Scott Clements and Erik Cajelais. Both big guns rarely find anyone willing to start chirping at them from across the table. Some might even fear approaching them. Throw in former hockey player Greg “FBT” Mueller and we would have the start of a good tag team match. Cajelais has yet to cash during this year’s WSOP but Clements has two final tables finishing 2nd and 3rd.

The NHL Stanley Cup came to the World Series of Poker this week. Their hockey awards were taking place across the street and the NHL held a charity poker game in the Amazon Room. WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack is also the half-brother of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. The Stanley Cup was brought to the bracelet presentation area and drew a huge crowd.

The “feature” table was converted for the NHL Charity Shootout Tournament from the standard green felt to a hockey rink. The dealer button was replaced by a hockey puck. Current and former NHL players battled against poker pros for their great charities. Philadelphia Flyer (hometown of your humble blogger) Scotty Hartnell defeated Robert Luongo heads up to win this inaugural event.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Week 4 in Pictures

Weekend Plans for April 10th

AlCantHang — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:35:35 +0000

Eli Elezra and Chau Giang will battle it out in Friday Night Fights

Another tough week of grinding away at the tables will be rewarded this weekend with the big guarantee tournaments and other special events. Qualify continues on a regular schedule for both the 2009 World Series of Poker and the upcoming FTOPS XII which kicks off in less than a month.

Tonight brings us the latest in the Friday Night Fights, pitting Eli Elezra against Chau Giang in a Heads-up battle. They will play heads-up in a $50/$100 HA game – half Pot-Limit Hold ‘em, half Pot-Limit Omaha – starting with $10K in chips in a “winner take all” session. While you are railing there match, you can play in the $500, $75,000 guarantee Friday Night Fights tournament and a $10 Sweat Tournament at 20:05ET.

Big action and big prizepools for the taking. More for you after the jump.

“I firmly believe that it’s impossible to play too tight in Omaha Hi/Lo, especially in a ring game. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not especially fun to play the game that tight, but if you have the patience for it, it’s as good a game as any to make money in.”
- Chip Jett – Selecting Starting Hands in Omaha Hi/Lo

I’m a huge fan of Omaha/8 and it’s my preferred cash game, action I enjoy much more than the perceived push and pray fun of NLHE. If you feel the same way I suggest you hit up Chip Jett’s Pro Tip #183 for Omaha/8 hand selection. Many people find it dull since the most profitable play is the nut/nut grind but you’d be surprised just how it easy to pick off the weak players who don’t play optimum poker.

Besides Jett’s latest nugget, there is plenty of great advice that comes out each week in the Full Tilt Pro Tips. Add this to your Full Tilt Poker Academy experiences and you’ll improve your game by leaps and bounds in a much shorter time than in the past.

For the 1% of people who are not aware, fellow Full Tilt blogger Michael Craig authored one of my favorite poker books to date (The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King), the story of the biggest heads-up battle which occurred between Texan banker Andy Beal and a group of the biggest players in poker. For a couple reasons I began wondering what was going on with Andy Beal and whether the game would ever continue.

One, with the big Heads-up match between Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Partik Antonius in the durrrr Challenge it was an easy leap to try and compare the two grudge matches. Two, there’s a little banking crisis going on in the world and Beal is a big banker with a unique business strategy.

No sooner did I start thinking about the Beal matches and Michael Craig posted an update on the Full Tilt Poker Blog. As I suspected, Beal is just a little too busy with taking care of business to worry too much about a “little” poker game. You can read the rest of the post my jumping to the link below.

“So what does all this mean? First, Andy Beal is too busy for poker now. I remember, back in February 2006, he said he wasn’t even finding the heat of battle in a high-stakes poker game especially rewarding. I asked why he still did it and he said, “What am I going to do? Work one hour a day? Go to bed at 8 o’clock?” Andy says he’s done with high-stakes poker but as long as the economy stays as it is, his resolve won’t even be tested. Second, the FORBES article reveals something I have known for awhile, which is Andy’s interest in race cars.”
Michael Craig – Andy Beal’s Biggest Game

Big Money Sundays will also be running the normal stable of big guarantee tournaments as well as some big WSoP satellites. I suspect the fields will be a little smaller with the holiday and you might find some bargains in the big games as well as some of the smaller buy-in guarantee tournaments throughout the day. A perfect time to get some action.

Tournament: The Sunday Brawl
When: Sundays at 14:00 ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE with Knockouts
Buyin: $240+16
Guarantee: $350,000 prizepool

Tournament: The $200K Double Deuce
When: Sundays at 16:22 ET
Game: NLHE
Buyin: $20+2
Guarantee: $200,000 prizepool

Tournament: $750,000 Guarantee
When: Sundays at 18:00 ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $200+16
Guarantee: $750,000 prizepool

Tournament: The Sunday Mulligan
When: Sundays at 19:05 ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $200+16
Guarantee: $200,000 prizepool

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Weekend Plans for April 10th