Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Day 4 was bubble time, Day 5 was “moving day”, and today will when the remaining players try to position themselves for a November Nine appearance. Some massive stacks and top players will be spread throughout the 16 remaining tables. 142 players will start back up at noon and play just four levels. The tables are spread wide giving the room a real sense that we are near the end.
Ben Lamb and David Back spent most of Day 5 trading the lead, Lamb was the first over the 5,000,000 chip mark but Back finished the day with the chip lead. Back famously laid two nasty beats on Vanessa Rousso to stay alive and he’s taking advantage of his bonus time. Joseph Cheong continues to grind along as the only November Niner still in the field and we still have Tony Hachem, brother of 2005 Main Event champion.
The online players are represented by Phil “USCphildo” Collins, Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo, Christian “charder30″ Harder, and David “Doc Sands” Sands. The old school players include Eli Elezra, Allen Cunningham, and David Bach.
It’s impossible to tell how fast the action will move along but I suspect will see some early fireworks.
1 – David Bach – 4,706,000
2 – Pius Heinz – 4,699,000
3 – Kyle Johnson – 4,654,000
4 – Phil “USCphildo” Collins – 4,109,000
5 – Ben “benba” Lamb – 4,032,000
6 – Aleksandr Mozhnyakov – 3,462,000
7 – Sebastian Ruthenberg – 3,354,000
8 – Lars Bonding – 3,327,000
9 – Bryan Devonshire – 3,292,000
10 – Thomas Grey – 3,173,000
Other notables: Per Linde (2,986,000), JP Kelly (2,664,000), Tony Hachem (2,067,000), Joseph Cheong (1,988,000), Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo (1,686,000), Christian “charder30″ Harder (1,624,000), David “Doc Sands” Sands (1,620,000), Jean-Robert Bellande (1,230,000), Peter Feldman (827,000), Amanda “BodogMander” Musumeci (738,000), Allen Cunningham (641,000)
Level 24:
Things started off today hot and heavy, removing three tables worth of players from the field as just 114 made the first break of the day. The big mover early was Phil “USCphildo” Collins who became the first over 6million and then 7million. He is running over the main feature table and even created a rare situation when the WSOP staff colored up some of his chips off schedule.
Some of the early victims were Chris “boNeZee” Bonita, Carl Olson, and Peter Feldman. 2010 November Niner will not be making back-to-back final tables as he was eliminated near the beginning of Level 24. Hilton Laborda, Steve Rawle, and Guillaume Darcourt are just a few of the players trending northward. Ben “benba” Lamb and Bryan Devonshire continue to cruise along with monster stacks.
Random chip counts
Phil “USCphildo” Collins – 8,686,000
Ben “benba” Lamb – 5,335,000
Bryan Devonshire – 4,777,000
David Bach – 4,285,000
Per Linde – 2,890,000
JP Kelly – 2,710,000
Tony Hachem – 1,800,000
Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo – 1,800,000
David “Doc Sands” Sands – 1,650,000
Sorel Mizzi – 1,420,000
Level 25:
We generally see a big flurry of activity after the dinner break and today is no different. At this rate we are likely to see 50-some player at the end of the day if they play the schedule four levels. We now have just two women standing in the remaining 79 players in Erika Moutinho and Amanda “BodogMander” Musumeci.
Some of the more high profile players to hit the rail in the last few hours include Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo, Christian “charder30″ Harder, Ben Logan, and Eli Elezra. They are among a big group of busted players standing in line to get paid at the cage.
Phil “USCphildo” Collins continues to be a monster at the table, crawling over 8,000,000 in chips but he has some company now. Ben “benba” Lamb currently leads in the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year race and sitting just behind Collins in the chip counts with 8,110,000. Bryan Devonshit has a top 5 chip stack as well followed down the list by JP Kelly, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Per Linde, James “Not Jimmy” Page, David “Doc Sands” Sands, Erick Lindgren, and Allen Cunningham.
I’m not sure the WSOP will play out the entire four levels scheduled today or we will see a shortened day tomorrow.
Random chip counts:
Phil “USCphildo” Collins – 8,400,000
Ben “benba” Lamb – 8,110,000
Bryan Devonshire – 6,050,000
JP Kelly – 4,340,000
David Bach – 4,020,000
David “Doc Sands” Sands – 2,615,000
Erick Lindgren – 2,525,000
Erika Moutinho – 1,100,000
Amanda “BodogMander” Musumeci – 865,000
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Allen Cunningham, Bloggers on the Rail, Eli Elezra, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Yesterday was an exercise is watching two tournaments which would play out completely different. No one has been able to provide me with a reasonable explanation why it happens, but most pot limit tournaments tend to dust off their field an astonishing pace. Yesterday was no different with the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament which finished the day with just 11% of the field remaining. The other side of the coin was the $10,000 Deuce to Seven Championship which will return the exact number of players even though they started with 639 fewer players. Obviously the stakes and chip stacks play into those numbers, but that still doesn’t make watching the mayhem in Pot Limit fields any less entertaining.
In a summer full of tournaments, it’s tough to get ramped up for every one of them but there are some which are circled at the start. The $10,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Championship is one of them. The field is packed with some of the best players in the world from past to present and the seven handed tables make it easy to witness the special hands. 88 of the starting 126 players remain for Day 2 (see comment above) and there isn’t a soft spot in the field. Defending champion David “Bakes” Baker is alive and well sitting in 12th with an above average chip stack. Play resumes at 3pm.
1 – Vincent Musso – 106,200
2 – Shaun Deeb – 92,900
3 – Vladimir Shchemelev – 90,400
4 – Nikolay Evdakov – 88,500
5 – Jennifer Harman – 83,700
6 – Alex Balandin – 82,900
7 – Joe Cassidy – 80,400
8 – Dan Shak – 77,700
9 – Nick Schulman – 73,200
10 – Brandon Cantu – 72,200
Other notables: The entire field
The $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event continued the trend of the bigger field this year when 765 players bought in yesterday (topping last year’s number of 650). Also true to form is the amazing rate at which players tend to bust in pot limit tournaments. Just 88 players return for Day 3 and 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event 3rd place finisher Ronald “ScarJo” Lee is ahead of a field full of top notch talent. There are plenty of big names from online and live poker including defending champion James Dempsey.
1 – Ronald Lee – 122,700
2 – Jeff Kimber – 95,500
3 – James Carroll – 92,300
4 – Luke Marsh – 89,700
5 – Eric “Avril Sharapova” Ladny – 83,700
6 – Nick Davies – 82,000
7 – Daisuke Endo – 77,600
8 – Dennis Jeffrey – 69,800
9 – Davidi Kitai – 69,800
10 – Bradley Craig – 69,700
Other notables: James Dempsey (53,800), John Racener (52,200), Stephen O’Dwyer (50,100), Christian “charder30″ Harder (46500), John Dolan (46,000), Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen (41,600), Alessio Isaia (40,300), Hoyt Corkins (34,700), Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah (32,400), Matt Hawrilenko (22,800), Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler (20,900), Joe Sebok (20,000), Ted Lawson (20,000), Dan Heimiller (12,500)
Two new events today include the very popular $1,500 HORSE tournament and a good ol’ fashioned $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament.
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, Eli Elezra, Nikolay Evdakov, WSOP
Posted by Dave McCarthy | Filed under Uncategorized
Please note: Caption Contest #3 has ended. We will have another one soon!
Congratulations to our winners, and thanks to everyone for participating!
Everyone who submitted a caption will be registered in a $100 freeroll at 3pm ET Saturday, July 3. If you don’t intend to play in the freeroll, please say so — we’d like to cut down on the deadstacks if possible. The freeroll will be created Thursday and I will post the tournament ID here, though you’ll be able to find it by searching for (Ctrl+F) your player ID. If you aren’t registered by Thursday, email me at davefromtherail@gmail.com. Please make sure to include your comment number and your FTP ID in the email.
Winners will be paid their 500 FTP points within 48 hours (of Wednesday 12:01 am). If you haven’t been paid by then, please let me know: davefromtherail@gmail.com
Tags: caption contest, Eli Elezra, Mike Matusow, Phil Ivey
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Every time I think I have a handle on the play at the 2010 WSOP they throw me for another loop. You can usually expect the big buyin limit/split pot games to go into the early morning to declare a champ, the 6-handed and Pot Limit games usually hit their number at a reasonable hour, and the Heads Up matches NEVER go over their allotted time. Yesterday’s final day of the $10,000 Heads Up Championship blew that idea right out of the water.
We should have had an idea earlier in the day when Vanessa Rousso and Ernst Schmejkal played a marathon match in the “Elite 8″ round but no one saw what was coming. Ernst Schmejkal (nicknamed too many consonants) would meet Ayaz Mahmood (nicknamed too many vowels) in the final match to determine this year’s bracelet winner beginning at 10:45pm in a best of two out of three. Following the action with huge stacks, small blinds, and incredibly timid heads up play made for some of the most uninteresting poker. Three hours into the first match and most of the media was content to follow the progress online intending to head back to the Rio once we moved onto the next match.
That never happened.
These two tip toed their way through six and a half hours of soul retching grindem’ out poker with Mahmood eventually taking the first match. They decided sanity would be the rule of the day and both players will now return later today to see if we can finally give someone the bracelet. Just to twist things around, I’m predicting a ridiculous match with the number of hands played in the single digits.
We do have some exciting things in line this afternoon with the final day of the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event as Full Tilt is well represented. John Juanda leads the field with 25 players remaining, he’s looking for his 4th final table of 2010 and his 5th bracelet overall. Also representing Tilt are Phil Ivey, David Benyamine and David Singer. Tradition and common sense tell us it will take quite awhile to determine this year’s bracelet winner but I’ve obviously been wrong these last few days. Play resumes at 3pm today.
$3,000 H.O.R.S.E. top ten chip counts:
1 – John Juanda – 393,000
2 – Dave Baker – 373,000
3 – Ryan Hughes – 354,000
4 – Daniel Makowsky – 312,000
5 – Kenneth Aldridge – 257,000
6 – Brent Wheeler – 256,000
7 – Phil Ivey – 205,000
8 – Jeff Lisandro – 193,000
9 – Mitch Schock – 189,000
10 – Alexandre Luneau – 182,000
It wouldn’t be a day at the Rio if Phil Ivey wasn’t multi-tabling the world. He found himself making another Day 2 in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship which will restart at the same time as his H.O.R.S.E. final day and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he entered today’s $1,500 NLH Shootout tournament. 122 players return for the PLH Championship with Mike Matusow, Andy Bloch, Shaun “f’n” Deebs, Vitaly Lunkin, Erica Schoenberg, Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichentenberg, and Toto Leonidas all in the middle of the pack. Tom Marchese is out in front.
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Eli Elezra, John Juanda, Phil Ivey, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The crutch of a weak writer is a post with nothing but photos. Luckily we have access to some of the best in the room and I make no claim to be anything other than a hack. The first week of the WSOP is in the books so we thought we would share some of our favorite pics from the the last 7 days worth of tournaments.
The picture to the right is easily my favorite of the summer. New Full Tilt pro Annette Obrestad was making her long awaited debut mid-week and instantly found herself an entertaining table. EPT San Remo champion Liv Boeree was sitting a few seats to her left with poker multi-tasker and twitter phenom Joe Sebok to her immediate right. As the attention was focused on Obrestad, Sebok couldn’t help but photobomb (I believe that is what the kids are calling it) one of the shots. It didn’t take long for this image to get blasted all over the internet.
Click image for larger view
Perry Friedman is also one to never disappoint. Last year he spent the WSOP wearing a “grill” and cornrows in his hair. This year he said he was keeping it a little easier since it became an issue getting the Full Tilt logo reshaved in his head on a regular basis. For this series he bought himself a boatload of silly hats which would change with each event. If a player busts him from the event, the hat is used as a bounty to memorialize the knockout. When asked how many hats he brought along he said, “Probably around fifteen but I only want to give away two.” You heard it hear first, Perry Friedman would like to win 13 bracelets this year. Jester hat, chicken hat, dreadlock hat, and a putting green. Unfortunately he has already gone over his allotted budget of two bounties.
Finally, Andy Black does not seem amused but it probably had more to do with the $10,000 Stud Championship.
You can find the rest of WSOP Week 1 in pictures after the jump:
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Amanda Baker, Andrew Lichtenberger, Annette Obrestad, Bloggers on the Rail, Eli Elezra, Erica Schoenberg, Erick Lindgren, Gavin Smith, Huck Seed, James Akenhead, John Juanda, Perry Friedman, Praz Bansi, Steve Zolotow, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Perry Friedman rocks the Full Tilt Poker “grill” to go with his corn rows
I’ve generally stuck to doing a “Week in Pictures” during the preliminary events of the WSOP but I now realize that I’ll be getting more photos than I know what to do with now that we’ve come to the Main Event. So now we’re going to switch up to daily posts as long as we continue to get quality images.
Day 1a started with 1,116 and finished with 821 players. A good number of Team Full Tilt survived to see Day 2.
More photos after the jump:
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Allen Cunningham, Beth Shak, Bloggers on the Rail, Eli Elezra, Erik Cajelais, Gavin Smith, Greg Mueller, Jerry Yang, Jon Turner, Michael Gracz, Perry Friedman, Roland de Wolfe, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
In my other life as a completely unprofessional blogger (I am semi-pro at best in this space), I always take the stand that posting nothing but pictures on your site is just the crutch of a weak blogger. Words are hard, pretty picture keep the masses coming back. However, pictures can have the great effect of enhancing a story and I’ve been getting some top shelf images sent my way via Images Masters. Each Friday I’ll share with you some of the best images available.
All images credited to IMDPI.
Pictures after the jump, click to enlarge.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Allen Cunningham, Amanda Baker, Bloggers on the Rail, Chris Ferguson, Eli Elezra, Erica Schoenberg, Erick Lindgren, Jeff Madsen, Jerry Yang, Michael Craig, Phil Ivey, Pictures of the Week, Vitaly Lunkin, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
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.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Chau Giang, Eli Elezra, Friday Night Fights, Michael Craig
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