Poker From The Rail
a Poker Blog brought to you by Full Tilt Poker
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Week 2 continued the trend and attendance at the 2011 World Series of Poker seems to be up by more the 10% from last year. The large buyin tournament are up a little on average but the smaller buyin events are blowing away their previous numbers. The lines for the $1,500 and $1,000 tournaments has been stretching down the halls of the Rio convention center with those looking for glory.
This week had a great story from bracelet David Diaz who survived cancer proving that poker is not the end all be all in this world. Phil Hellmuth looked ready to coast to his 12th bracelet only to run into John Juanda’s Deuce-to-Seven skills to pick up his 5th. Brian Rast broke the hearts of every forum fanboy in the land when he defeated Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler heads up for the Pot Limit Hold’em title. Below are your bracelet winners of the week:
Event #8 – $1,000 No Limit Hold’em – Sean Getzwiller (U.S.) – $611,185
Event #9 – $1,500 No Limit Deuce-to-Seven – Matt Perrins (U.K.) – $102,105
Event #10 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 6-handed – Geffrey Klein (U.S) – $544,388
Event #11 – $10,000 Omaha/8 Championship – Viacheslav Zhukov (Russia) – $465,215
Event #12 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Triple Chance – David Diaz (U.S.) – $352,808
Event #13 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout – Andrew Badecker (U.S.) – $369,371
Event #14 – $3,000 Limit Hold’em – Tyler Bonkowski (Canada) – $220,817
Event #15 – $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em – Brian Rast (U.S.) – $227,232
Event #16 – $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball (No Limit) – John Juanda (U.S.) – $367,170
Event #17 – $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. – Aaron Steury (U.S.) – $289,283
Catching up on my “Players to Watch” list posted before the series began, it was another solid week especially when there was a lock on a bracelet when Phil Hellmuth and John Juanda went heads up for the Deuce-to-Seven No Limit Championship. Team Poker From the Rail has pulled over $850,000 from the prizepool including two bracelets and four final tables.
John Juanda – $367,170 (1 final table, 1 WSOP bracelet)
Phil Hellmuth – $226,907 (1 final table)
Eugene Katchalov – $122,909 (1 final table, 1 WSOP bracelet)
Tom Dwan – $67,436
Tim “Tmay420″ West – $22,563
Josh Brikis – $19,294 (1 final table)
Jonathan Duhamel – $9,738
Allen Cunningham – $8,191
Erik Seidel – $6,868
Daniel Negreanu – $4,998
This week’s schedule has two of the more anticipated tournaments of the summer. The 8-game and 10-game Mix events will run this week. Both events look to crown the best all around player with 10-game mix including such recently popular games like Badugi. There are two new Championship events (plus the Seniors make an appearance) as well as another $1,500 and $1,000 No Limit Hold’em slaughters.
Day 14, June 13th at 12:00 – $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha
Day 14, June 13th at 17:00 – $2,500 Eight Game Mix
Day 15, June 14th at 12:00 – $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout
Day 15, June 14th at 17:00 – $1,500 Seven Card Stud
Day 16, June 15th at 12:00 – $2,500 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed
Day 16, June 15th at 17:00 – $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship
Day 17, June 16th at 17:00 – $2,500 10-Game Mix 6-Handed
Day 18, June 17th at 12:00 – $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold’em Championship
Day 18, June 17th at 17:00 – $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha
Day 19, June 18th at 12:00 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em
Day 19, June 18th at 17:00 – $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Championship
Day 20, June 19th at 12:00 – $1,000 No Limit Hold’em
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Cajelais, Nikolay Evdakov, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Phil Ivey and Erick Lindgren sweat the Celtics/Lakers game during $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship
It was bound to catch up with us, with a relatively slow few days we saw this day on the horizon that will keep us jumping all day. Between the Pavilion and Amazon Rooms we will be tracking 7 different events including a new $1,500 NLHE tournament which already looks to have a huge field before the end of the first level. Among those 7 events we will have 3 new WSOP champions, 2 events on a restart, and 2 brand new tournaments. There will not be a dull moment between now and sometime early in the morning.
We’re sure to have another lengthy final table with another limit split-pot game. The $1,500 Stud/8 event was only able to get itself down to 23 players which will need play all the way down to a winner. With the size of the stacks I wouldn’t expect another 7am finish but it will be a race against the sun. Max Troy will begin the day with the chip lead but there are plenty of names behind that are capable of catching him like David Levi, Blair Rodman, Allen Bari, Brandon Cantu, and Full Tilt’s Karina Jett. They will return at 3pm to begin their marathon day.
Less likely to make us wait until sunrise to claim a champion will be the $2,500 NLHE 6-handed tournament with 15 players remaining and still plenty of action event late night Day 2. Team Full Tilt is situated nicely with 3 of the returning 15 participants in Erik Cajelais, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, and Eddy Scharf. The way this tournament played out I was surprised they didn’t nail the final table 6 before the end of play. The 6-handed format provided plenty of action no matter which table I was watching. They will also return at 3pm to start their final run.
$2,500 NLHE 6-handed top ten stacks:
1 – Steve Cowley – 1,279,000
2 – Martins Adeniya – 823,000
3 – Jeffrey Papola – 797,000
4 – Bill Haydon – 776,000
5 – Joe Baldwin – 707,000
6 – Justing “Boosted J” Smith – 641,000
7 – Jarred Solomon – 542,000
8 – Javier Etayo – 505,000
9 – Erik Cajelais – 345,000
10 – Andrey Danilyuk – 335,000
The $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha Day 1 did not disappoint as only 102 of the original 596 starting players will return for Day 2. They are just 48 eliminations from the money and my bold prediction for the day is they will reach at least 18 players by end of day if not the final table. Loren Klein comes in as the chip leader but Full Tilt’s Richard Ashby is sitting just behind looking for his second bracelet of the 2010 WSOP and help solidify this as the “Year of the Brits“.
The $10,000 Limit Hold’em World Championship played out on the other end of the spectrum. 107 of the starting 171 return owing it to the incredibly deep stacks, limit structures, and a inherent better skill involved in these $10,000 tournaments. The returning field is stacked top to bottom with outstanding players not the least is Russian Vladimir Shchemelev who has final tabled every 5-digit buyin events. 2009 Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro leads the pack but that can change quickly, for full chip counts to begin the day you can hit the official WSOP site.
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Erick Lindgren, Erik Cajelais, Karina Jett, Phil Ivey, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The big story during week 2 of the 2010 World Series of Poker was obviously the run by Tom “durrrr” Dwan attempting to win his 1st bracelet, the accompanying cash, and a boatload of prop bet money with the poker cream of the crop. Play began on Day 2 of Event #11 and Dwan was sitting with a great chance to make history for various reason. But the online multi-table master would not settle for just playing this once event.
Before he restart he was also involved in the Deuce to Seven tournament at the same time in the Amazon Room. During breaks in the NLHE action he would go sprinting across the empty spaces to play as many as he could fit in. He would eventually bust after shoving a few hands in a row giving time to concentrate on his bracelet run.
Still that wasn’t enough for Dwan. He then bought into the $10,000 Stud/8 World Championship which he spent an hour playing during the dinner break for Event #11. As we all know, Dwan would go on to finish second in his first serious bracelet run at an electric final table. The picture on the right is Dwan’s seat slip and chips awaiting his return to the Deuce to Seven tournament. The picture on the left is his Event #11 stack waiting for his return.
After the jump you can find more pictures from Week 2 including more pictures of the various headgear of Perry Friedman, Ivey’s shiny new jacket, and chip tricks.
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Amanda Baker, Annette Obrestad, Bloggers on the Rail, Eric Froehlich, Erik Cajelais, John Phan, Lizzy Harrison, Perry Friedman, Phil Ivey, Pictures of the Week, Roland de Wolfe, Roy Winston, Svetlana Gromenkova, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Erik Cajelais at the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe" width="500" />
Things get quite bizarre around me when I find myself going a week’s length of time without serious internet access. I always have my trusty iPhone on my person in case immediate situations present themselves where I need access to a search engine for frivolous trivia answers, but it doesn’t give the outlet for my inter-words or a chance to follow along with things in the poker world. That was the situation I found myself over the last week when I left the grind of the Borgata Poker Open and took a little birthday time away in an island paradise.
So what has happened over the last few days that might be of interest to the casual fan of poker? Members of Team Full Tilt putting a big stamp on the World Series of Poker Europe and an FTP Heads Up grinder collects a WPT win after an huge comeback.
First out of the chute is the easy reporting duty since I was there in person. 1,018 players entered the 2009 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship, they battled for 5 days until we finally found ourselves looking at a heads up match for the title. Olivier “livb112″ Busquet found himself looking at a massive underdog chip stack going up against blackjack specialist Jeremy Brown. Busquet makes his living tearing through $1,000 Heads Up SnG’s on Full Tilt Poker, booking over $1,500,000 in earnings. Brown’s claim to fame seemed to be chugging a beer per orbit and shots of Patrone with his friends. At one point Busquet was all in with his last 1,800,000 in chips versus the +30,000,000 of Brown, behind and turning lucky. Battle after battle, he eventually turned the tide and took down the title. It will certainly be one of the more interesting telecasts of the new season next spring. You can catch his victory interview with Amanda Leatherman here.
In the big news across the pond, we saw members of Team Full Tilt dominate the early WSOP-E events and making a run at the Main Event as we read/write this post. With just 4 total events during this London-based series, players did not have the luxury of warming up with a bunch of smaller events before jumping after a bracelet. The first event was a standard £1,000 buyin No Limit Hold’em tournament. While none of the Full Tilters ran huge in this starter event, we did have Markus Gloser and John Juanda make the money and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson just miss the final table in 15th.
Event #2 is where things became interesting. Just 158 players bought into the Mix Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha for £2,500 with 18 players getting paid. Team Full Tilt member Vitaly Lunkin and “friend of the blog” Allie Prescott both made it into the money but could not get onto the final table. It was a talented final nine which included Howard Lederer, Hoyt Corkins, Chris Bjorin, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Ian Frazer and Erik Cajelais. In the end, Team Full Tilt had the first off the final table and the last man standing. Howard Lederer was eliminated in the 9th place while Erik Cajelais collects his first WSOP braclet to go along with his WPT Five Diamonds Classic title. Many of the players on the final day were also registered for Day 1 of the £5,000 PLO tournament and there seemed to be a lot of live multi-tabling going on.
Howard Lederer would not let his 9th place finish hamper his efforts in Event #3, £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha sure to attract the best European poker players around. 154 players were in the running to start Day 1 but only 18 would make the money and a chance at the bracelet. Tom “durrrr” Dwan has been known to play a few hands of PLO on occasion (tongue firmly in cheek) but he was unable to crack the final table coming in 14th. Nearly half of the final was composed of the red and white patches of Full Tilt with Robert Williamson III, Hendon Mobster Ross Boatman, Roberto Romanello and Howard Lederer in the last nine. Howard Lederer was poised to capture the second bracelet for FTP but was unable to overcome Jani Vilmunen to finish second. That is back-to-back final table finishes for “The Professor”.
James Akenhead at the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe" width="200" align="left" />The £10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event is will underway and there are just two tables left battling it out. John Juanda won the bracelet in 2008 but was unable to defend his title. James Akenhead has a fantastic chance to duplicate the feat by Ivan Demidov last year. Demidov was already set up as a member of the “November Nine” in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event when he went to Europe and final tabled that Main Event. Akenhead will represent Full Tilt Poker later this year for the WSOP Main Event final table and is now sitting mid-field with 18 players remaining in the European Main Event.
Also looking to make a run at this final bracelet you can find poker legend Doyle Brunson, Hendon Mobster Ram Vaswani, Tony Cousineau, Matt Hawrilenko, Daniel Negreanu, and Jason Mercier. There are no soft spots left in this field. They continue to grind away and hopefully we’ll have just one more great story for Team Full Tilt before the series is complete.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Cajelais, Howard Lederer, James Akenhead, John Juanda
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Erik Cajelais at the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event" width="200" align="right" />
They’re heading into Day 2 of the second event of the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe and a Tilter is leading the way as they head towards the money. Only 158 players put down the £2,500 for the mixed Pot Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha tournament but they only dropped down to 24 players, with 18 of those making the money. Eric Cajelais will bring his intimidation back to play down to a winner. Cajelias is sitting with 145,000, also alive are Team Full Tilt are Howard Lederer and Vitaly Lunkin. Men Nguyen, Allie Prescott, and Hoyt Corkins are also in contention.
Here at The Borgata I am spending my time watching a bunch of grinder fight their way through to make the $925,000 payday along with the televised WPT final table. Getting down close the bubble we had two big Full Tilt pros battling it out against each other and entertaining the rail in the process. Bill Gazes joined the table with Gavin Smith and local poker legend “Joey the B” Brooks right up against the rail and things were entertaining. Until just before the dinner break. Smith and Gazes were both sitting with decent size stack when Smith 3-bet the preflop raise of Gazes. Push, call, and all the chips were in the middle with Smith holding AA and Gazes a lowly little pair of 6′s. No sweating involved as a 6 was waiting in the door.
Day 3 of the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship where they’ll make the money and play down to 27. Still kicking around in the event we have Bill Gazes, Steve Brecher, Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah, Justin “TooRoothlus” Levy (brother of “Roothlus), Kathy Liebert, Matt Brady, Michael Binger, Chris Reslock, and Lee Childs.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bill Gazes, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Cajelais, Gavin Smith, Steve Brecher, WPT
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
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
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Amanda Baker, Bloggers on the Rail, Chau Giang, Erick Lindgren, Erik Cajelais, Howard Lederer, Kristy Gazes, Phil Ivey, Pictures of the Week, Rafe Furst, Scott Clements, Steve Zolotow
Most Popular Posts
- (none)
Authors
Blogroll
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
sweet!...Disclaimer
The opinions expressed by this blog and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt Poker is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the author of this blog nor any content contained herein.
