Posts Tagged ‘ESPN’
Phil Ivey in ESPN the Magazine
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Phil Ivey will grace the cover of ESPN the Magazine on November 2nd
Photo credits: ESPN
Our friends over at WickedChopsPoker.com broke this earlier today, we knew it was coming eventually and now it’s available to everyone. Even though it looks like the mainstream media is far behind in picking up stories, ESPN will be featuring Full Tilt Poker’s Phil Ivey on the November 2nd cover of ESPN the Magazine now that the November Nine is just a couple weeks away. Chad Millman was the lucky ESPN writer who found himself bouncing around the globe in Ivey’s private Gulfstream, to Foxwoods then Montreal then Amsterdam then Austria. Just another week in the life of the best poker player on the planet.
During this jaunt he was able to see a side of Ivey that most only hear about in rumors or stories or those internet fables posted over every forum on the internet. Gambling at nose-bleed levels most can only dream about, or have nightmares. He is the classic whale when entering casinos and is treated as such. Custom-made craps tables, private jets, going anywhere on a whim, it’s all come to him from this unique gift that has some players calling him the best ever.
“I know it’s a lot of money, but I like to gamble,” Ivey says. “It’s just in me. I try to manage what I do playing craps or blackjack. At the end of the year, I don’t want the amount I gamble there to be bigger than what I win playing poker.”
But that’s just the world-traveling, gambling side of Ivey, few ever have the opportunity to see it. The article does bring up some points about his poker game. He’s always aware of what’s going on around him, picking up pieces of information that casual person would never think about in life or at the poker table.
Ivey sees tics and tells the rest of us don’t. This is one of his gifts. When he sits at the table unsmiling, headphones over his ears, he’s like a cyborg computing the vulnerabilities of his opponents. While some poker pros calculate the odds of hands, Ivey doesn’t classify himself as a numbers guy. “At the level I play, it becomes more psychological than mathematical,” he says. “You really have to get in your opponents’ heads and figure out what they’re trying to do to you in pots and what they’re saying and why, what is the meaning behind it all.”
“Everyone dreams of winning the Main Event; anyone who plays poker and tells you differently is lying,” says Ivey. “It would by farbe my biggest accomplishment in poker.”
The article is a great look inside the private world of the most dangerous November Nine member, the player who has nothing to prove other than winning his first World Series of Poker Main Event. It’s definitely worth a read when the magazine comes out, if you have an ESPN Insider account you can find it online right now by clicking here.
Also out this week, the fine group over at PokerRoad.com have a video out now where Barry Greenstein goes in search of Phil Ivey in his self-imposed exile. It’s a fantastic video and yet another look behind the curtain of his life. He’s sitting around his house in Cabo chatting and playing a little online poker. By far my favorite line is
“…we lift weights for half hour then we do yoga, for an hour, then we go golfing. That’s how I prepare for the Main Event. I’m not getting no poker coaches or any of that s#$t.”
It’s definitely worth the time to check out their video. The video is embedded after the jump below.
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Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, ESPN, Phil Ivey, WSOP
2009 World Series of Poker ESPN Broadcast
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Things are starting to get interesting on the ESPN broadcast of the 2009 World Series of Poker now. The field has been reduced considerably by this point and you’ll begin to see the leaders emerge as well as some of the spectacular flame outs. There is no doubt that we will see a healthy dose of Phil Ivey as he continued his push to what would eventually be his inclusion in the “November Nine”. Chris Ferguson, Gavin Smith, and Roland De Wolfe should see some TV time as well. 2009 Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro will be primary focus of the broadcast which will have him on the feature table.
I was out there during the WSOP along with fellow FTP blogger Michael Craig. You can check out his archives as well as my Main Event live blogs here. Also listed below are some links to my Pictures of the day. The two ESPN broadcast will run today at 20:00ET and 21:00ET.
2009 World Series of Poker Day 1c and 1d in Pictures
2009 World Series of Poker Day 2a in Pictures
2009 World Series of Poker Day 2b in Pictures
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Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, ESPN, Phil Ivey, WSOP
2009 World Series of Poker preview – ESPN Broadcast Schedule
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
With only 1 week left until the start of the 2009 World Series of Poker, players, writers, support staff, dealers, tournament directors, and anyone else I’m missing is preparing the throw themselves into the Amazon Room at the Rio in full force. The setup is well underway but the craziness is still holding back.
At the beginning of the series, everyone is looking to see which events will be televised by ESPN so they can get their 15 minutes of fame. This year the broadcast schedule is out early with some major changes. In years past they have shown at least a few episodes of non-NLHE games throughout the festival but this year is different.
There will only be 4 events shown this year across 32 hours of broadcasting. The main increase will obviously be towards the Main Event with each day (including all 4 Day 1’s) receiving two hours of coverage. The other 3 events are first timers. The 40th Anniversary $40,000 No Limit Hold’em will be the first major tournament this year and the first to hit the ESPN airwaves. That will be followed by the new WSOP Champions Invitational which will have an incredible field built for TV.
Also making for some good TV will the first time broadcast of the Ante Up For Africa Celebrity Charity Event. A $5,000 buyin event that will have an incredible number of top pros as well as celebrities donking around for a great cause.
Those are the four events making up your 31 episodes of ESPN Poker coverage, ending with the two hour Main Event Final Table broadcast on November 10th.
The entire broadcast schedule is posted after the jump.
2009 November Nine previews are here:
2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 1
2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 2
2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 3
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Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, ESPN, WSOP
