Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Gavin Smith visits with Erick Lindgren during the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship
“It seems all Juanda does is make final tables.“ Quoting myself when I didn’t go too far out on a limb putting John Juanda on my Players to Watch list before the series kicked off. After winning the Deuce-to-Seven Championship earlier in the week, Juanda found himself at another final table in the 8-Game Mix tournament. After riding a short stack for a long time, he departed in 6th at a table which included Eric Buchman, Brent “Bhanks11″ Hanks, John Racener, and eventual winner John Monette. This was just his second cash of the summer but both went well.
The 5pm tournament yesterday featured an all-star field in the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship. As rock solid a crew as you will see in a tournament outside the Player’s Championship and not a soft spot to be seen. Player’s jokingly call this tournament “Min-Bet Championship” but that doesn’t stop them from turning out. A whopping 106 of the starting 152 players return with legends scattered from top to bottom of the chip count leaderboard. Daniel Negreanu leads the way looking to join Juanda with his 5th career bracelet but will have plenty of competition throughout the long day from the likes of Barry Greenstein, Carlos Mortensen, David “Bakes” Baker, Josh Arieh, and Erik Seidel.
They will attempt to play down to the final table but more likely to hit the 10 level “hard stop” rule. Top chip counts and other notables below.
1 – Daniel Negreanu – 118,800
2 – Josh Arieh – 107,500
3 – Mike Pickett – 103,100
4 – Mikhail Smirnov – 95,100
5 – Shawn Buchanan – 92,000
6 – Erik Cajelais – 87,000
7 – Matthew Gallin – 84,500
8 – Carlos Mortensen – 76,600
9 – Mikail Tulchinskiy – 75,900
10 – Maria Ho – 75,700
Other Notables: Barry Greenstein (74,400), Jeff Shulman (66,700), Isaac Haxton (66,300), Alessio Isaia (66,000), Dan Kelly (64,400), Justin “BoostedJ” Smith (64,000), Nick Schulman (61,600), Eric Froehlich (59,700), Erick Lindgren (52,500)
While a lot of the big guns are firing away in the Limit Championship, there are still quite a few interesting players in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low tournament worth tracking. 23 players return for the final day including 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela, ESPN’s Norm Chad, WPT’s (and legend) Mike Sexton, and Kirill Gerasimov. Three strong female players (Kristy Gazes, Karina Jett, and Ming Reslock) are in the field looking to end the long WSOP drought for women.
When asked if this tournament will declare a winner before 10 levels, the WSOP Magic 8-ball said “doubtful”.
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, Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, Gavin Smith, John Juanda, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The “fun table” of the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. with Lacey Jones and Gavin Smith
Walking into the Rio today reminds me of the first year they ran the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em “Stimulus Special” tournament in 2009. The hallways packed to the gills with an incredibly long registration line that still stretched forever when cards went in the air at noon. Saturday afternoon $1,500 NLHE is the reason with tables in both the Pavilion and Amazon Rooms. No telling what the official of entrants will be when registration closes prior to the fifth level but it’s a great sign. Likely the biggest Day 1 of the summer so far.
I suspect media row will be a little more subdued than normal as the remnants of the WSOP Launch party hosted by Maria Ho went into the wee hours of the morning (your trusty blogger being one of the few to ditch out and be responsible) but those who survived will have a great day ahead of them. Two events will play down to a winner including the packed final nine in the $10,000 Deuce to Seven No Limit Championship.
The resumes of those final players show 21 bracelets and $22,000,000 in career WSOP career earnings. Those numbers would have been blow up even further had 10-time bracelet Johnny Chan not finished in 12th. Joe Cassidy is the lone player without WSOP gold but had the chops and chips to hang with everyone. David “Bakes” Baker is the defending champion in this event and sitting pretty in third place to begin the day.
But all eyes will be on the “Poker Brat” Phil Hellmuth will be looking to extend his career bracelet lead over Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson with his 12th WSOP bracelet. Once they reach the final table 7, action will be moved to the ESPN “Mothership” stage for a classic battle.
1 – Richard Ashby – 700,000
2 – Joe Cassidy – 540,000
3 – David “Bakes” Baker – 492,000
4 – Steve Sung – 441,000
5 – Hasan Habib – 437,000
6 – Greg Raymer – 355,000
7 – Phil Hellmuth – 339,000
8 – Nick Schulman – 306,000
9 – John Juanda – 171,000
The other bracelet awarded today will be in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament which has the forum monkeys all atwitter as Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler comes into the day sitting 2nd out of 10 and looking for his first WSOP bracelet. The forum favorite will have a heavy rail this afternoon when the start the final day of the event.
1 – Brian Rast – 1,081,000
2 – Allen Kessler – 618,000
3 – Ali Eslami – 402,000
4 – John Gordon – 380,000
5 – Ronald Lee – 198,000
6 – Andrew Cohen – 190,000
7 – Mika Paasonen – 187,000
8 – Daisuke Endo – 174,000
9 – Ted Lawson – 140,000
10 – Dajuan Whorley – 85,000
The yearly $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament continues to be a popular draw with the players and yesterday’s Day 1 drew another record crowd with 963 entrants. Even with the limit structure, only 185 players survived to make Day 2 and attempt to make a final table. Full Tilt Poker’s Eli Elezra leads the field with fellow FTP pro Svetlana Gromenkova not far behind.
1 – Eli Elezra – 92,100
2 – Nicholas Kost – 73,600
3 – Julien Renard – 67,600
4 – Samuel Ngai – 66,300
5 – Svetlana Gromenkova – 56,800
6 – Cody Munger – 55,500
7 – Justin Schwartz – 54,700
8 – Victor Ramdin – 52,100
9 – Antoine Amourette – 51,500
10 – Josh Schlein – 50,800
Other notables: Lyle Berman (49,700), Yuval “yuvee04″ Bronshtein (49,500), David Bach (38,000), Bob Lauria (37,700), John D’Agostino (37,600), Ylon Schwartz (31,300), David Chiu (29,500), Dan Michalski (28,700), Layne Flack (28,700), Allen Bari (28,400)
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, Gavin Smith, John Juanda, Johnny Chan, Lacey Jones, Phil Hellmuth, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
We’re just a few short days away from the start of the 2011 World Series of Poker and things are beginning to buzz. Plans are being solidified, airfare booked, and rolls wired to the Rio cage. While the world winds itself up for the coming series, we thought it would be nice to head back to last year for a few highlights.
Last week I put together a list of some of the best pictures of the summer and today I tried to come up with my 5 favorite stories from last year. It was not an easy task as I didn’t add the much anticipated first WSOP for Annette Obrestad, the incredible class shown by Brandon Adams getting berated on the way to a second place finish, or the incredible run of 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela.
While they may come off as a strictly Full Tilt Poker list, as a long time poker observer, these were the stories I consider the most memorable.
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, Michael Mizrachi, November Nine, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
We’ve made it just halfway through Day 1 of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event but things are starting to take shape. We’re almost guaranteed to surpass the numbers of last year with 2,614 players through 1a/1b and the WSOP staff reporting over 2,000 registered for today alone. Considering 1d is traditionally the largest flight, we could possibly pop over 8,000 players before registration is complete for the year. Great numbers.
The ESPN audience should have some fine entertainment when they run yesterday’s action since Gavin Smith spent the entire day on the feature table having fun with a bunch of youngn’s including that goofball Batman character Dave interviewed yesterday. Even though the WSOP twitter said Smith was eliminated, the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated as he ended the day with over 60,000 in chips. Annette Obrestad wasn’t so fortunate on the day, she was on the secondary feature table and seemed to have a rough go of it the entire time. Her 2010 WSOP came to an end during the last hour of play.
Online monster Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond finished the day with one of the top stacks along with Gavin Griffin and Dan “djk123″ Kelly. Others weren’t as lucky when their runs also came to an end like Erick Lindgren, “ElkY” Grosspellier, Liv Boeree, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, and former Main Event champion Jamie Gold. Still, nearly 1,500 players made it through the second flight and will return on Saturday to continue their grind.
Today promises a gathering of more star players and we’ll be running between the rooms to catch some action, that includes the cliched idiotic entrance of Phil Hellmuth. With just over an hour until the start of 1c, players are already crowding the halls, pulling on every locked door, just straining to make a dash for their table and listen to Jack Effel scream over the sound system. It’s the human degenerate “Running of the Bulls”, stay out of their way.
Below are a few of the notable names and chip counts of those making it through 1b:
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond – 107,100
James “Flushy” Dempsey – 106,175
Roland De Wolfe – 96,600
Chris Bell – 88,900
Blair Rodman – 85,025
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout – 79,200
Ryan Eriquezzo – 72,000
Dan “djk123″ Kelly – 70,700
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner – 63,825
Gavin Smith – 62,275
Marlon Shirley – 60,025
Ludovic Lacay – 59,075
Karina Jett – 58,700
Paul Sexton – 58,075
Julius Goat – 57,600
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby – 55,900
DID NOT REPORT – 46,975
Julian Gardner – 41,500
Phil Laak – 40,275
Mike Swick – 38,675
12:00 – Cards are in the air with 2010 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Cada doing the honor of kicking things off. He will be playing on the ESPN main stage and we’ll be waiting for a caricature of Phil Hellmuth to grace us all with the self-important ego sometime this afternoon on the secondary stage. I’m breathless in anticipation of his next clownish entrance.
Some of those in today’s event include Matt Hawrilenko, Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu, Bill Gazes, Scotty Nguyen, Lee Childs, Alex Outhred, Jason Young, Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, SirWaffles, Tournament Director extraordinaire Matt Savage, and metal god Scott Ian.
13:00 – We may be several weeks from discovery of 2010 November Nine and months away from a champion but WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage has already won the day. Having first hand experience with the grind the poker media goes through over the summer (ridiculously long days, crap pay, and unappreciative spoiled pro players), Savage began his Main Event run by dropping off a big delivery of sandwiches from one of our favorite shops. I was declared “keeper of the hoagies” most likely because I will guard them with my life and I am can act as an imposing figure. Cheers Mr. Savage.
Also found in today’s field were John Juanda, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Carlos Mortensen, Eli Elezra, Johnny Chan, David “The Dragon” Pham*, Barny Boatman, Shaun “f’n” Deeb, Tony “Bond18″ Dunst, Bob Lauria, Kathy Leibert, Leo Margets, Lauren Kling, CaityCaity, and Billy “FiveTreySooted” Kopp. Unfortunately your 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions winner Huck Seed was eliminated in the first hour of the first level. Time for him to hit the big cash games.
14:15 – 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth once again embarrasses himself and his legacy by making a spectacular entrants with a stage, dancers, and ripped dude without a shirt. I would never mention this other than ridiculous of it and the fact he was introduced by Full Tilt’s Bruce Buffer, covered in FTP patches for a competing companies promotion. Thanks for the free pub.
Around the tables, we have Tom “durrrr” Dwan running into a lot of resistance while dropping chips but David Williams is cruising along with an early big stack. Wee little one Dario Minieri joins Huck Seed on the rail.
Players are now on their first 20 minute break of the day and we’re still trying to work out the official numbers.
Twitter updates:
@taopauly: Players at Hellmuth’s table anted up $100 each for a pool — whoever busts Hellmuth wins all the cash. #waitingonhellmuth
The silliness has already begun.
@TexDolly: I’m glad I’m not playing today so I won’t see Hellmuth make a fool out of himself with his entrance. I can’t help thinking it’s terrible.
If Doyle Brunson is calling you out on the shenanigans, maybe it’s time to hang them up.
@Eric_Ramsey: Ate two pieces of beef jerky. Feeling nauseous. Teriyaki flavoring likely made from ground hamsters.
In addition to free Matt Savage sandwiches, the media is also smothered in dried meats.
The Matt Savage WSOP media sandwich spread
15:20 – Yesterday’s live blog mentioned the “ladies’ track suits” being worn by Phil Gordon, Rafe Furst and Joe Sebok, but we were unable to capture a good picture before they disappeared into the evening. Today we have Joe Reitman in the field and also support the Bad Beat on Cancer charity by track suiting it up. That would be Joe pictured on the left looking awfully “disco”. Reitman is sitting in a crowded part of the Pavilion Room with Matt Savage, Marcel Luske, and Adam “Roothlus” Levy all without shouting distance.
Very few bustouts over the last hour but we have a new development which makes the Phil Hellmuth debacle less disturbing. It seems the Dennis Phillips fan club has arrived and railing his table just a short distance from the press box. Every time Phillips wins a hand they blow a very loud, very obnoxious air horn. I’d like to remind the poker world that Dennis Phillips did not win the WSOP Main Event, although you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise on the basis of the non-stop promotions.
Still bouncing around the two rooms for other players of interest. This time around we found Toto Leonidas, Jeff Madsen, Kristy Gazes, David Benefield, Amanda “MandyB” Baker, Thayer Rasmussen, Mike “Little Man” Seca, Steve O’Dwyer, Matt “Daddy” Sims, Robert Mizrachi, and 2007 WSOP Main Event Winner Jerry Yang.
4:20pm – This update comes to you in honor of Dr. Pauly’s new book “Lost Vegas” which is now available for purchase. Any reference in there to “AlCantHang” might be purely coincidental. I have my copy and it’s worth the read.
I may have missed in the mass of preliminary tournaments, but I believe I saw Patrik Antonius make today his first WSOP event of the summer. That hasn’t stopped him from picking up big money in the cash games and those players he backed. It will interesting to see if the puny $10,000 entry fee can keep his attention long enough for a deep run.
More faces popping up on our radar between the two rooms: Frabrice Soulier, Brock Parker, “BigMike” Norce, Evelyn Ng, Liz Lieu, and Godsmack front man Sully Erna. No word on if Sully has any sort of last longer prop bet with Scott Ian.
Our latest player to find themself on the short stack is 2009 WPT Borgata Poker Open Champion Olivier “LivB” Busquet who is hanging on to chip life-support. Walking around the Pavilion Room, I no longer see Men Nguyen taking up space at Table 5 and assume he’s out the door looking for a new poker disciple.
18:00 – It’s nearly impossible to spot a chip leader at this point of the series and pretty much irrelevant to boot. We are mostly relegated to walking the rooms to find players with impressive stacks then count them down or we piggyback to find information from PokerNews like the rest of the free world. Over the last hour we saw Full Tilt and Hendon Mobster Barny Boatman just to the top of the leaderboard among the recognized pros. He’s been hitting some monster hands going well over 100,000. Also just hitting a monster would be “friend of the blog” Alex Outhred who is knocking on the 100,000 door waiting to get in.
We had a few more big names exit their Rio after busting from the final WSOP event including Full Tilt’s Jeff Madsen, Scott Fischman, 2009 November Niner Steven Begleiter, Metal God Scott Ian, 2009 WSOP king of the final table Ville Wahlbeck, and fame-bot Shanna Moakler.
Under one hour until the players head off on their 90-minute dinner break, after which we can watch the fireworks.
20:30 – Finally back in the comforts of the pressbox after battling a non-stop river of poker players away then back to the Amazon Room. It was poor planning on my part in timing, but there’s nothing like walking the long hallways from the tournament area to the casino to find a place to relax for 90 minutes. It’s an endless see of humanity that spends the entire time complaining about bad beats, explaining their suckouts, or finding someway to make themselves not responsible for their current chip position. Social anthropologists would have a field day.
We have our official Day 1c player count is in and we’re had 2,313 players register which gets us just under 5,000 players. 4,927 player through the 3 flights, still looking at an outside shot of 8,000 players for the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
We’ve lost a couple online masters in Shaun “f’n” Deeb and Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers to the rail as well as Eric Froehlich and Chad Brown. Tom “durrrr” Dwan came back from his quick dinner with few chips but trying to find anyone who will buy him out, a kind of “short sale” for his tournament life. Five of the top chipstacks with just 1.5 levels to go include Barny Boatman, David Williams, Johnny Chan, Robert Mizrachi, and Alex Outhred. It could be very interesting if both Mike and Robert Mizrachi show up for Day 2am with huge chipstacks.
Update: We’re going to run another reader freeroll on Saturday at 18:00ET. It will be a Limit Omaha/8 tournament opened to only the first 50 players who leave a comment asking to be included. We like to thank those who read this far down in the post. Deadline to enter is the first 50 commenters or 9pm ET Friday. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read along.
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Gavin Smith wins his first bracelet in Event #44 of the 2010 World Series of Poker
Yesterday was a great day for poker, not just those affiliated with Full Tilt. One of the good guys won when Gavin Smith finished the night by picking up his first WSOP bracelet. Always one to be entertaining, always keeping things light at the table and life in general, Gavin was one of those players stuck with the dreaded tag of “great player without a bracelet”. That all ended last night in front of his friend, family, and fans.
After he completed the feat he was handed the microphone by WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla to say a few words to the crowd around the table. Gavin is never short on words but this time he choked up giving a brief thanks to everyone and then giving the mic up to gather himself. The “friends” picture with everyone gathered around was too wide for most cameras. Later today we will all gather in the Pavilion Room for his bracelet ceremony and I will return with a writeup of the evening.
Today will kick off the 2010 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. It is a 3 table tournament featuring some of the top bracelet winners over the last 4 decades, most of whom were voted into this $1,000,000 freeroll (beats the little red Corvette from last year). Full Tilt has a third of the field which will be split between the 2 media feature tables and the main stage which will be live streamed on ESPN3.com.
Two new bracelets will be awarded in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em and $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha/8 events. The PLO8 once again went against precedent by just barely making the money before play was ended for Day 2. It seems “Devilfish” Ulliot had the big hand of the evening catching perfect against Phil Hellmuth to end his long day with no money but giving Ulliot one of the top stacks on the final day. 21 players return and will continue until a champion is crowned. Still alive are Erik Seidel, Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, Andy Black, and “Miami John” Cernuto.
$5,000 Pot Limit Omaha/8 top ten chip counts:
1 – Sergey Altbregin – 486,000
2 – David “Devilfish” Ulliot – 415,000
3 – Perry Green – 367,000
4 – Dan Shak – 339,000
5 – Chris Bell – 335,000
6 – Leif Force – 330,000
7 – Rob Hollink – 321,000
8 – Dan Heimiller – 247,000
9 – Jeremy Harkin – 201,000
10 – Cameron McKinley – 146,000
The $1,500 is still 33 eliminations away from it’s winner and there are some interesting names in the mix. Dutch Boyd comes in with one of the top stacks and will continue to draw interest and criticism. He’s also looking for his second bracelet of the summer. Alex Outhred will start near the top of the field and Josh Brikis will be looking for his second 2010 final table. Play restarts at 2:30pm.
$1,500 No Limit Hold’em top ten chip counts:
1 – Sam Trickett – 922,000
2 – Larry Wilder – 916,000
3 – Stephen Chidwick – 783,000
4 – Kevin O’Dell – 768,000
5 – Thiago Nishijima – 643,000
6 – Dutch Boyd – 619,000
7 – Michael Goldfarb – 617,000
8 – Raymond Coburn – 560,000
9 – Jesse Rockowitz – 558,000
10 – Johan Jakobsson – 522,000
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Yesterday was an adventurous one for your trusted Tilty bloggers as there so many things going on we couldn’t keep it straight most of the time. Throw in extremely flaky internet access and it was a big bundle of fun from start to finish. Richard Ashby was at the $10,000 HORSE final table going for his second bracelet of the summer, Gavin Smith was slamming through the Mixed Hold’em field, a massive $1,500 field to navigate, and the rest of the big names seemed to enter the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha/8 tournament.
The $10,000 HORSE returned yesterday with 23 players all looking for a big payday. The grind took as long as we predicted 5 hours into play we hit the unofficial final table nine but it included 5 Full Tilt players in Carlos Mortensen, Scott Fischman, Marco Traniello, Nick Schulman, and Richard Ashby. One after another they fell by the wayside until it was Ian Gordon battling Ashb.. He’s been on a heater the last few weeks but heads up play lasted exactly one hand with the shortstack Ashby unable to win a flip holding the JackAce. He took home over $378,000 but will have to wait for another chance at his second bracelet.
Sometime during the final table I managed to insert myself into the mix. Ashby was spending his HORSE break time nursing a stack in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha/8 tournament and asked a friend to check out his stack. Since I’m sporting the nifty media credentials it was much easier for me to duck the rail to track down his stack. I found a post-it note with his name in front of 12,200 worth of tournament chips. He seemed content with the count and continued his trip to second place. Those quick jumps across the room during break must have been working out well as he begins Day 2 of PLO8 with ~17,000 in chips.
In the other corner of the room I was watching Gavin Smith drag pot after pot until the field finished the day with their final 9 players. One of the few events to reach their final table on schedule and a good thing since it’s being webcast live via ESPN3.com. Smith is one of the more popular players in the game with his good nature and good times, he’s also done a lot of charity work that rarely gets mentioned due to his tendencies towards outlandish behavior. There will be many people cheering him on the rail as he attempts to win his first WSOP bracelet.
$2,500 Mixed Hold’em final table:
1 – Jarred Solomon – 748,000
2 – Gavin Smith – 745,000
3 – Danny Hannawa – 542,000
4 – Michael Michnik – 527,000
5 – Timothy Finne – 331,000
6 – Jamie Rosen – 300,000
7 – Daniel Idema – 237,000
8 – Dwyte Pilgrim – 196,000
9 – Mike Santoro – 179,000
The “big” game of the day was some Pot Limit Omaha/8 fun with nearly 100 more players in the field than last year. 284 players began the day with 130 returning for the restart at 3pm. Mike Matusow is among the bigger stacks in the count along with 2010 WSOP bracelet winner James Dempsey, online monster Ryan “ryanbluf” Karp, and friend of the blog “yuvee04″ Brohnstein. It will take most of the day for the field to hit the money with more than 100 eliminations to get through but we have faith in the PLO8 gamblers to do their best to get the chips in the middle.
$5,000 Pot Limit Omaha/8 top ten chip counts:
1 – Colin Burton – 91,700
2 – James Dempsey – 88,900
3 – Steve “Can I buy a vowel” Chanthabouasy – 88,000
4 – Sergey Altbregin – 85,000
5 – Ryan “ryanbluf” Karp – 76,200
6 – Francis Lincoln – 75,700
7 – Yuval “yuvee04″ Brohnstein – 71,200
8 – Senovio Ramirez III – 64,900
9 – Mike Matusow – 63,100
10 – Ilari Tahkokallio – 62,800
This post was ready to go hours ago and then smash goes the internet. Again. Feel free to point out every case of badly functioning spell can grammar check. I can take it.
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, Richard Ashby, 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
It’s one of the standard conversations which always come up during the World Series of Poker. Who’s the best player to not have captured their first bracelet? Mr. McCarthy and myself were just sitting on media row yesterday bouncing names back and forth with the usual suspect always in the mix, Team Full Tilt member Andy Bloch. He is one of the most successful tournament players in the world but has yet to find himself as the last player standing at the end of a WSOP event. His efforts include two high profile second place finishes where he was the favorite going into heads up play.
Regular guest blogger “Tuscaloosa” Johnny sent along his thoughts on ten high-profile players coming into the summer still aiming for their first title. Interesting that he lists Michael Mizrachi in his post as “The Grinder” will sit at the $50,000 Player’s Championshp final table later today.
Best players without a WSOP bracelet
By “Tuscaloosa” Johnny Kampis
Erick Lindgren, Kenny Tran, Nenad Medic, Dario Minieri, John Phan. Know what all of these players have in common? They all won their first World Series of Poker bracelets in recent years. These players were lucky enough to achieve their first victories in the Rio, but there are plenty of deserving pros who haven’t tasted WSOP glory yet. Here are ten pros that are due:
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Andy Bloch, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, Guest Posts, Gus Hansen, Michael Mizrachi, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Tuscaloosa Johnny, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Many stories revolving around the world of poker seem to concentrate on the singular attempt to remove money or chips from opponents, degenerate gambling, or otherwise unhealthy activities. This is often an unfair representation of the entire poker community, there are many who go out of their way to support others in need through different venues. Bad Beat on Cancer, Ante Up for Africa, and Poker Jingle are just a few ways poker players come together to raise money for great charities and causes.
“All In for CP” at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino presents the next opportunity for players to continue their string of generosity.
The poker tournament will take place in the Hard Rock Poker Lounge on Saturday, December 12th at 2pm with a $550 buyin and $200 rebuys for the first 90 minutes. 50% of with the money will go into the tournament prizepool and the important 50% will benefit “The One Step Closer Foundation“. The poker room will be filled when many of your favorite sports stars, celebrities, and poker players including legend Doyle Brunson, 2009 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Cada, 2008 WSOP November Nine member Dennis Phillips, Gavin Smith, Jeff Madsen, Barry Greenstein, Michael Binger, and Lacey Jones. Actors Mekhi Phifer, Jennifer Tilly, Cheryl Hines and Shannon Elizabeth with join rock stars Jerry Cantrell from Alice n Chains and Scott Ian from Anthrax.
There will also be an auction taking place with many exciting items up for grabs. Among others, you can bid on a two hour tutoring session with 2009 WSOP Champion Joe Cada or even have a “meet and greet” with Daniel Negreanu. For my money, the big ticket item on the auction block will be a date with the always wonderful Lacey Jones. I suspect quite a few dollars will the raised this year.
The One Step Closer Foundation is charitable organization whose main goal is to ease, as much as possible, the lives of those who suffer from Cerebral Palsy. It was founded by Jacob Zalewski who was born with Cerebral Palsy and understands the daily battles they must face. This is a tremendous chance for poker players to come out to show their support for a great charity and play alongside their heroes from the poker table, screen or stage. Players can register online at the “All In for CP” website or at the poker room on Saturday, December 12th.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, Jeff Madsen
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
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