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:

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Main Event Day 1a Pictures

Related posts:

1. 2009 World Series of Poker – Main Event Day 1b Pictures
2. 2009 World Series of Poker – Week 2 in Pictures
3. 2009 World Series of Poker – Week 3 in Pictures

All images credited to IMDPI.

Pictures after the jump, click to enlarge.

Eli Elezra playing in the 2009 World Series of Poker Event #3 Limit Omaha/8.
He would go on to cash in 20th place.

Fellow Full Tilt blogger Michael Craig playing in Event # 4 “Stimulus Special”

2007 WSOP Main Event Champion Jerry Yang in The Champions Invitational, which was new to the 200 World Series of Poker.  The tournament featured former WSOP Main Event winners. Tom McEvoy eventually won the Binion’s Cup.

Poker legend Ted Forrest was eliminated in 9th at the final table of the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em Event #2.  An event to honor the 40th Anniversary of the World Series of Poker, the field was stacked with some of the best players in the world.

Prior to the 2009 World Series of Poker, there were thoughts that this would be the year of the Russian poker players.  Full Tilt pro Vitaly Lunkin started on the right foot by winning the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament.

The $40,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament was one of final tables to be broadcast by ESPN.  Winner Vitaly Lunkin is sitting in front of his piles of cash and giving the traditional Norm Chad post-victory interview.

Jeff Madsen ponders his action during Day 1B of the $1,000 “Stimulus Special”.
Gavin Smith in the foreground.

Amanda “Mandy B” Baker playing on Day 2 of the $1,000 “Stimulus Special”.  She would go on a great run but finish in 33rd.  $22,000 return on her $1,000 investment.

Allen Cunningham ponders the action during the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament

Erick Lindgren starts Day 2 of the World Championship Seven Card Stud

Erica Schoenberg playing in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event #7

Between hands in the No Limit 2-7 Draw tournament, Chris Ferguson takes time to play some games on his phone

Phil Ivey plays Day 2 of the No Limit 2-7 Draw tournament.
Bracelet number 6 is just days away.

Phil Ivey eyes up bracelet number 6 during NL 2-7 Draw final table.
He would win it eventually after a 3 hour heads-up battle with John Monnette.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – The Week in Pictures

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1. 2009 World Series of Poker – Week 3 in Pictures
2. 2009 World Series of Poker – Week 4 in Pictures
3. 2009 World Series of Poker – Week 5 in Pictures

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.

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“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.

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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

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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

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