Full Tilt sponsored two players in the Main Event with stories worthy of your interest.  Marlon Shirley (pictured right) is a two time Paralympic gold medalist, the first amputee to run the 100 meters in under 11 seconds, and an avid poker player. He came to Las Vegas to play in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event and the Ante Up for Africa Charity event. I could tell you the rest of the story but it be better to let a proper writer do that duty. Fellow blogger Michael Craig has a great writeup with Shirley’s story here. Unfortunately he was not able to “outrun” his poker opponents to reach Day 2a and will not win WSOP gold.

Also wearing Full Tilt red and white was Jack Ury, at 96 he’s simply the oldest to ever play in the WSOP Main Event.  Ury has been adding to his record each year since his first Main Event in 2007 at the chipper age of 94.  He was enjoying himself and the ESPN cameras were a constant audience.  Ury will have to get his rest over the next few days before he comes in Day 2a with just over 23,000 in chips.

You can see the rest of the Day 1b pictures after the jump:

Mike Matusow spent his Day 1b on display at the ESPN feature table.
He’ll start Day 2a with 37,875 chips.

Fabrice Soulier already has seven cashes in the 2009 World Series of Poker, he now he will be one of the top chips stacks heading into Day 2a with 97,725.

Five cashes during the 2009 World Series of Poker, 8 career World Series of Poker bracelets, over $4,000,000 in WSOP cash but zero Main Events bracelets thanks to Johnny (censored) Chan.  He tries to fix that this year going into Day 2a with 18,550 chips.

David Pham was one of the victims of the day, he will gear for the WSOP-E events.

A contrast in Day 1b’s between Barny Boatman and Bill Edler.  The Hendon Mobster was unable to add to his 2009 WSOP final table and will not be around for Day 2a but can look forward to the WSOP-E events in his native London.  Bill Edler however is still alive in the Main Event but will need to do some work with less than 14,000 chips to start.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

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

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Vitaly Lunkin and Erik Seidel both made the $50k HORSE final table but came up short

It’s all over but the big one.  There will be no more preliminary events to witness, no more multiple tournaments across several rooms.  Today the Amazon Room takes a break to prepare for the big daddy Main Event.  There are a few mega-satellites going on throughout the room and we’ll get to watch the big charity Ante Up for Africa event.  A low stress day before the halls of the Rio are rammed full of grinders looking for the biggest prize in poker.

Today we will award the final preliminary event bracelet in the $5,000 6-max No Limit Hold’em tournament with Full Tilt pros Peter “Nordberg” Feldman and Matt Hawrilenko near the top of the board for a bracelet.  They start the day with 16 players remaining and playing down to the winner.

It’s more than 90 minutes before kicking off the celeb-heavy Ante Up for Africa tournament and fans have already begun loading up on the rail.  Plenty of chances for them to get an up close view of their favorite poker player, movie star, rock star.  Anyone can drop $5,000 and get into the event, one of the few being broadcast by ESPN this year.  Media access is severely restricted for this tournament so I’ll give it a cursory glance.

In news from the $50,000 HORSE World Championship, Full Tilt walked in with 4 of the remaining 8 seats but unable to bring home another bracelet and that big fancy trophy.  It turned out to be one of the longest final tables in World Series of Poker history coming in at just under 19 hours.  The only other final table which ran longer was the 2009 World Series of Poker-Europe Main Event won by John Juanda in 19 hours 9 minutes.  Vitaly Lunkin went the furthest for Team Full Tilt with a 4th place finish.  Lunkin final tabled the two biggest buyins of the year after winning the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em Anniversary tournament.

For players coming into town for their shot at the Main Event, they are running Mega-satellites between now and July 5th at 10am and 4pm with a $550 buyin.  They are giving away nearly 10 seats per satellite and the play appears to mighty soft in relation to the prize.

Everyone is taking a little break today, gathering themselves for the two week Main Event storm where we’ll see I huge jump in participation and attendance, the rail will be nearly impossible to navigate.  If you were thinking of making the trip out here, now is the time to get it done.

Nikolay Evdakov reflects on his Event #56 performance
Sometimes the captions write themselves

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker Day 37 – Deep Breath

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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

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

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

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:

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:

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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While all this is going on, the good folks at Image Masters continue to provide us with some great action shots during the tournaments.  Every morning I receive pictures from the day before that I use to enhance the stories I try to bring the readers.  I hope they’ve added to the experience.

Today I bring you some photos from Week 2 of the 2009 World Series of Poker without my ramblings.  A small taste of what we have available, look for a full gallery coming in the next few days.  All pictures courtesy of Image Masters.

Pictures after the jump, click to enlarge:

The Two Faces of Andy Black
Andy Black started off the 2009 World Series of Poker with players talking about his play AND his appearance. He seemed to be rocking the beard and laid back look at the beginning and looked completely different during Week 2. Your investigative blogger will get to the bottom of this before the end of the series.

Phil Ivey collects World Series of Poker bracelet #6 at the daily ceremony from WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.

Phil Ivey wasted no time after winning his 6th WSOP bracelet. He hopped right back into action.  Full Tilt pro Beth Shak in the foreground and may be the recipient of the Ivey stare.

Legends side-by-side.  Erik Seidel and Mike Sexton grinding away in Event #15 of the 2009 World Series of Poker.  Seidel came close to winning his 9th WSOP bracelet in the Pot Limit Hold’em tournament had to settle for a seventh place finish.  Seidel is tied with another legend, Johnny Moss, with 8 WSOP bracelets.

Svetlana Gromenkova and Karina Jett were just a few of the Full Tilt pros to represent in the 2009 World Series of Poker Ladies Championship. Gromenkova won this event in 2008 but was unable to defend her title.

“Miami” John Cernuto and John Juanda playing in Event #16 $1,500 Seven Card Stud tournament.  “Miami” John would put up a great fight ending up in 11th.  Juanda had his first shot at bracelet number 5 by making the final table. Juanda’s run ended with a 5th place finish.

Howard Lederer playing in the $10,000 Mixed World Championship.  It’s been a slow start to the series for “The Professor” this year with only one cash to date.  No doubt he’ll be a factor as the series progresses.

Both David Chiu and Huck Seed won their way to the final table of the $10,000 Mixed Championship with a chance to add to their jewelry collection.  Seed collected over $102,000 for his 5th place finish and Chiu was the runner up for $304,000 but no new trophies on his wrist.

Erica Schoenberg only has one cash in the 2009 World Series of Poker but continues her search for a WSOP bracelet.  As a railbird favorite, she is always easy to find in the poker room.

It’s never a dull moment when Perry Friedman is in the poker room.  He started the series by sporting a “Full Tilt Poker grill” (gold hip hop teeth things for us uncool folk) and he added a little twist in Week 2.  It’s tough to see but he rocking the cornrows on each side of his head with Full Tilt spelled out in beads.  Who knows what to expect in Week 3.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Week 2 in Pictures

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Erik Seidel playing Day 3 of the North American Poker Championship
Photo credit: WorldPokerTour.com

Gavin Smith and Erik Seidel lead the Full Tilt charge at Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagra Falls, Ontario.  More after the jump.

Gavin Smith is sitting in a great spot to claim his first major tournament on his home Canadian soil. He will begin Day 4 of the North American Poker Championship in Niagra Falls, Ontario with the number 2 chipstack with the field down to the final 27.

Vivek Rajkumar finds himself sitting on top of the field and looking to win an unprecedented back-to-back WPT titles but has 4 top players nipping at his heels. He has to be feeling some pressure with this list of players sitting just behind him in chip counts.

Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar – 1,080,000
Gavin Smith – 979,000
Matt Matros – 943,000
Kathy Leibert – 879,000
Erik Seidel – 851,000

They’ll be playing down to the final 6 for the televised final table.

Besides Gavin Smith and Erik Seidel, Miami John Cernuto is the only other Full Tilt pro remaining in the final 27 although with a very small stack. He will need to do some work with his 92,000.

The 2008 North American Poker Championship was a $10,000 (Canadian) buyin tournament that started with 454 players. The top 45 players made the money with the winner receiving $1,090,589.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2008 North American Poker Championship Day 4

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If you’re one of the three people who read my post from last week, you’ll remember that I predicted a WPT victory for Erik Seidel at the Foxwoods Poker Classic. Well, lo and behold, I was right.

Sure, my prediction didn’t earn me anything like the nearly $980K that Seidel took home for the victory, but a couple of fivers from the Monkey, the Captain, and the Inuit will pay for a few brews at the end of the day.

In addition to providing Seidel with his first career WPT Championship, his victory puts him at the top of the CardPlayer Player of the Year standings, three spots ahead of fellow Team Full Tilter Phil Ivey and four spots ahead of defending champion, David Pham.

Seidel chose not to follow up his victory with a trip to Monte Carlo for the EPT Grand Finale, but a few other pros made the journey to the Cote d’Azur. When Day 3 kicked off on Monday, Rino Mathis, Dario Alioto, and Thomas Wahlroos all had very playable chip stacks. Will any of them go on to win? I’d like to say so, but with this much play left, not even a Donkey of my caliber will go out on a limb and predict victory yet.

The poker forums have been buzzing all weekend over the announcement that ePassporte is no longer accepting online poker-related transactions. That’s right – they’ve closed their borders and not even a valid Visa (or MasterCard) will let you deposit to sites like FTP using ePassporte.

While ePassporte has yet to issue an official statement to users, a letter posted online states the company has made its decision in light of “a widespread investigation of Internet gambling, including poker, by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.” ePassporte’s letter goes on to say that the company does not believe it has violated any laws, but “we do not wish to be associated with anything that might be considered illegal by the United States government.”

In happier news, Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul have recently introduced new legislation designed to prevent implementation of the controversial UIGEA regulations. Specifically, H.R. 5767 will “forbid the Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from proposing, prescribing, or implementing any regulation that requires the financial services industry to identify and block Internet gambling transactions.”

While calling this a move to repeal the UIGEA may be a little strong, Frank and Paul certainly don’t pull any punches in outlining the flaws they see in the legislation. “These regulations are impossible to implement without placing a significant burden on the payments system and financial institutions” writes Frank. Adds Paul, “The ban on Internet gambling infringes on two freedoms that are important to many Americans: the ability to do with their money as they see fit, and the freedom from government interference with the Internet.”

The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Financial Services for further action, and we’ll keep track of its progress through the legislature.

Until then, keep playing – and keep reading.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

The Week at FTP: I Didn’t Jinx Seidel!

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Talk. Lots and lots of talk.

Really, that’s it. But, here’s the good thing – much of the talk was from people who say the UIGEA as currently written is, for all intents and purposes, completely unworkable. In short, the banking industry dislikes the law because it forces them to police their clients’ transactions and block those that might be earmarked for “illegal gaming”. What’s more, the Justice Department can’t even help make their lives easier by identifying what constitutes “illegal gaming”.

So, what does all this mean for us? For now, more of the same, but industry representatives and online poker proponents liked what they heard. As the Poker Players Alliance posted on their site, “… the hearing was a huge success that verified what the PPA and others have been saying all along: prohibition does not work. It also reaffirmed our position that there is no federal statute that would preclude someone from playing a game of skill, like poker, on the Internet.”

For even more reasoned commentary on the state of online poker, check out what two pretty bright guys name Andy and Chris had to say in Washington on the eve of last week’s hearing.

Wow, that was bad. Even by my standards. Sorry. Really, I am.

With that out of the way, I’ll get to meat of this entry which is this; Erik Seidel is having another good run at a high-profile tournament. As of this writing, Erik is sitting in 11^th place out of 33 remaining players at the Foxwoods Poker Classic in lovely Ledyard, Connecticut.

When play resumes today, Erik will be sitting with 417,500 chips, which is about half as many as chip leader Allen Bari has in front of him. But with blinds at 4K/8K with a 1K ante, there’s still plenty of play left. And with eight WSOP bracelets to his name and only a couple of other name players left in the event (Paul Darden in 10^th and Ted Forrest in 12^th), we think Seidel has a pretty good chance of adding another trophy to his collection.

In news entirely unrelated to poker, Charlton Heston has passed away. If there is a heaven, hopefully they don’t let in those damn dirty apes. Otherwise, Chuck is in big trouble.

In honor of the passing of Moses, The Captain will now part the Red Sea and turn the doomswitch off (for a limited time only). Then we’ll stage a chariot race around the office because, well, we really have nothing better to do.

We’ll be back next week barring any life threatening injuries suffered in the race. And if one of us doesn’t make it we’ll have a nice supply of Soylent Green on hand. Mmmm, tastes like chicken…

Post from: Poker From The Rail

The Week at FTP: Tastes Like Chicken

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Category	Erik Seidel	Brad Booth	Survey Says
Career Earnings	More than $8 million	Just under $700K	What’s money got to do with it? $8 million, $700K, it’s all the same to us (but, then again, we do get paid in pesos). To be fair, Booth makes a majority of his winnings in cash games, so who knows how much money he’s really made? That little caveat aside, Seidel takes down the first category.
Major Titles	Eight WSOP gold bracelets	None	Booth’s main focus is obviously not tourneys, so it’s hard to fault him for being so far behind Seidel. But we will anyway. Chalk another one up for Big-E.
Tournament Play	Yes please!	When does the side game start?	Seidel is one of the greatest living tourney players in the world and Booth is, well, Canadian. Guess where we’re going with this one. Seidel three, Booth zero.
Cash Game Play	Maybe later.	Let’s get it on!	Booth is one of the best cash game players out there. Plus, we hear he might be Canadian. And while Seidel can certainly hold his own in any cash game, we’re going to have to channel our inner maple leaf and give this one to Booth.
Playing Style	American Pie	Canadian Mongoose	Thus we arrive at the portion of this post where I have to start making stuff up (for the sake of my own amusement, of course). The Captain informs me that a mongoose is one of those critters that eat cobras, so that seems pretty cool. On the other hand, American Pie makes me think about that crappy movie where the kid sticks his Jerry Yang in the pie (or maybe I’m just bitter because I lost my virginity to a Danish). At any rate, let’s give this one to Booth because, well, he’s Canadian.
Best Game	Yahtzee!	Ball and Cup (the Canadian national pastime).	No, I will not be making any comments concerning balls or cups – let’s just say I had a bad experience once (OK, maybe twice). On the other hand, I’m a hell of a Yahtzee player. That’s the one where everyone runs around and kicks the crap out of the smallest kid in the class, right? Or am I thinking of Monopoly? Oh well, the point is… there is no point. And this has absolutely nothing to do with poker. Hey, at least I tried. I’m going to give this one to Booth because, well, he’s Mexican (note: Booth may or may not be Mexican, we can’t confirm this).
Nickname	None	Yukon Brad	We need to give a nickname to Seidel. How about Erik “Sly” Seidel; that would be cool. I wish my nickname was Sly. Instead I seem to be stuck with “Useless lump of crap.” This round goes to Booth because, well, he actually has a nickname. Yukon Brad has now taken the lead, four to three.
Outside Poker	Featured in the movie Rounders.	Booth once declared that he’d played poker every day for 14 years straight, so we’re gonna go out on a limb and say he doesn’t do much outside the world of poker.	Rounders is one of the quintessential poker movies. How could we go against Worm and Teddy KGB here? We will splash the pot anytime we feel like it! Notch one up for Seidel, the score is even going into the final frame.
I Pledge Allegiance…	… to America, the greatest country that ever was or ever will be!	… to Canada, um, what can we say about Canada? Oh yeah, we like your maple syrup. It goes quite well with a nice Danish.	USA! USA! USA! Need we say more? Mission accomplished! Seidel takes the match thanks to the greatest country on earth. God bless you America, from sea to shining sea (I think a tear just rolled down my cheek).

So that’s that. Seidel advances to the next round by a count of five to four. By the way people, I’m not ashamed to admit that I am half Canadian. So it’s OK for me to poke a little fun at the biggest little country in the world (or I am thinking of Reno?). I shall end this piece the only way I know how, with a quote from The Simpsons: “I come from Canada; they say I’m slow, eh?” Until next week…

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Heads Up: Erik Seidel Versus Brad Booth

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Howard “The Professor” Lederer is best known for his legendary poker prowess, and with two WSOP bracelets and two WPT titles under his belt, he’s one of the most intimidating players you’ll run into at any table. The question is, is he this intense away from the table?

To find out, we asked him – here’s what she had to say:

What does “poker lifestyle” mean to you?

It means thinking and talking about poker all of the time. You play poker 24/7, not just when you are at the table. And I never play poker just for fun.

Who’s the poker player you admire most?

I admire Barney Frank for standing up for personal freedom in the fight for online poker.

What’s the best line you’ve ever heard at the table?

“Well Doyle, you play your money and I’ll play THEIR money.”

—Sam Grizzle after Doyle complained about one of his plays. He is usually staked.

What is the one job you could never be paid enough to do?

I could never be paid enough to be the President of the US.

Away from poker, what do you do to relax?

I spend time with the family and enjoy going to movies.

What are your “desert island” book, recording artist, and movie?

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the Grateful Dead, and Paths of Glory.

Obviously, Howard is intense wherever he goes. But then again, if you lived and breathed poker like The Professor does, you’d probably be pretty intense as well.

Now, where’s that copy of Workingman’s Dead?

Post from: Poker From The Rail

The Pros Speak: Howard Lederer

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Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy-Oy-Vey. That’s what we imagine went through Team Full Tilt’s Erik Seidel’s brain earlier this week when he took second-place in the Aussie Millions Main Event – to a 21-year old Russian no one has ever heard of.

Oh well. Those are the breaks and everyone has to win their first tournament somewhere, right Erik?

Of course, Erik is still singing all the way to the bank as his performance was good enough to earn him AU$1 million, which has got to be worth at least five times that much in American money. (OK, we’re just guessing on that last part, but it’s safe to say, Erik won’t be worrying about where his next mortgage payment is coming from.)

Another player with a newly robust bankroll is Erik’s fellow Team Full Tilt member, Howard “The Professor” Lederer who banked AU$1.25 million for winning the $100K buy-in event down in Melbourne.

Congratulations to both players. Now, about those loans we wanted…

Yeah, we’re fans of Carl Spackler in these parts. We’re guessing that aaalvin is too – if he’s ever watched Caddyshack.

While we don’t know if Carl ever made good on his dream of winning the Masters, aaalvin pulled off a feat in the last $1 Million Guarantee that we think is just as impressive. Don’t believe us? Then you try playing your way from a 50 Full Tilt Point SNG to second-place finish in FTP’s biggest monthly tourney.

In addition to earning our respect for this impressive performance, aaalvin earned something much more valuable – $126,787. Congratulations aaalvin. Now, about that loan…

If you’ve been surfing around Full Tilt Poker over the past few days, you may have noticed a new red pro at the tables. So, let us be the first to officially welcome David “The Dragon” Pham to Full Tilt Poker.

If you’re not familiar with David’s resume, here a few highlights:

• The man owns two WSOP bracelets
• He’s made five WPT final tables, and has won both the LA Poker Classic and the Bellagio Five-Diamond Poker Classic
• He’s one of just a handful of players to have twice been named CardPlayer Magazine’s Player of the Year

And, despite the guys over at Wicked Chops claiming otherwise, we believe that David Pham is absolutely a real dragon. Until next week…

Post from: Poker From The Rail

The Week at FTP: Aussie Oy

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