Poker From The Rail
a Poker Blog brought to you by Full Tilt Poker
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The Amazon Room is going to be dead today but there will be plenty of action in the Pavilion Room as the WSOP unveils a new tournament on the schedule. With a $25,000 buyin, the 6-handed No Limit Hold’em Event #52 is the highest priced tournament outside the Players Championship. We’re unsure how many players will show up for the tournament but many pros sound like they scheduled their last few days to make sure they didn’t miss this event. As I’m writing this the tournament board is showing 171 players entered by the end of Level 1 and there isn’t a soft table in the field. It will be interesting to see how much of the normal 6-handed gamble we’ll see with the big ticket price but I suspect there will still be a healthy number of early bustouts. Walking the field I’ve already seen a few people hitting the rail even with the 75,000 in starting chips.
The powers at the WSOP have also made an accommodation for the players today. Normally the Day 2 restarts are moved to the Amazon Room but today they have switched the $3,000 NLH Triple Chance Day 2 seat assignments into the Amazon Room to allow players to compete in both events if they still have stacks.
No sooner did I hit the publish button and the WSOP staff threw a curveball at the entire field. They decided, while the players were on their first break, that the entire $25,000 NLH 6-max tournament would be moved all at once into the Amazon Room. Players began returning to see chip bags sitting in their spots getting ready to move. There are quite a few very unhappy players. That means the $3,000 Triple Chance restart will be switched to the Amazon Room also. Fun times in the Rio today. Now the Pavilion with be the Death Valley room.
That $3,000 No Limit Hold’em event was another example of unpredictable insanity. Conventional wisdom had them playing slower than your standard $1,000 Push-n-Pray festival but they tore the field like they had an unlimited number of those “rebuy” lammers. The Triple Chance variant of this tournament had players start with 3,000 in tournament chips and two lammers for an additional 3,000 in chips each. They had the option to use them all at once or wait until each stack was depleted, either way they were automatically used no matter by the end of the 4th level. These players burned through chips like they were allergic to money, 790 players were eliminated of the starting 965. Simple math tells me they were losing players at a pace of more than one per minute across the 10 levels of the day. Sounds like a fun way to light $3,000 on fire.
There were plenty great names to survive the onslaught with Full Tilt pros David Singer, Alessio Isaia, and James Akenhead sitting on top ten chip stacks. Also coming back for Day 2 are Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Mike Gracz, Tom “POB” Franklin, Vitaly Lunkin, Neil Channing, Marlon Shirley, Vitaly Lunkin, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, and Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier. 175 players return and they are paying 90 spots, will they get there before then end of Level 11?
$3,000 No Limit Hold’em Triple Chance top ten chip counts:
1 – Tommy Vedes – 237,100
2 – David Singer – 204,100
3 – Alessio Isaia – 182,900
4 – Gavin Griffin – 134,300
5 – Jason Helder – 130,200
6 – Ryan Welch – 126,800
7 – James Akenhead – 126,300
8 – Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers- 113,000
9 – Jason Doherty – 107,900
10 – Karga Holt – 105,600
Two WSOP bracelets will also be awarded today. Robert Mizrachi begins the final day of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event with the chip lead and looking to match his brother Mike “The Grinder” Mizrachi’s bracelet win at the beginning of the series. The PLO tournament took forever to finally burst the bubble but when it did we had Annette Obrestad, Andy Black, and Christian “charder30″ Harder adding more money to their bankroll. The latest $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament will play down from 23 to a winner also.
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, David Singer, James Akenhead, 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
As Day 6 gets underway we look forward to first two open event bracelet ceremonies after a marathon day of poker. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi came from behind heads up to win his first WSOP bracelet in the $50,000 Player’s Championship and Michael Chow outlasted journeyman Dan Heimiller to capture the $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 title. Only one new event kicks off today but two more bracelets will be awarded on the final day of the $1,000 and $1,500 NLHE. We will also have Day 2 restarts of the $5,000 NLHE Shootout and the always fun Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Limit event.
The big news of the night came from the main ESPN stage where 8 players battled it out for the $50,000 Player’s Championship bracelet, Chip Reese trophy, and a big bag of money. David Oppenheim began the day on the smallest of stacks but made a huge run right from the start, eventually moving into second place with 5 players remaining. He took a commanding lead when he went heads up with chip leader Michael Mirachi in a huge pot when his 4′s flopped a set versus The Grinder’s top pair top kicker. The brother’s Mizrachi eventually went up against each other with Michael getting the best of Robert, knocking him out in 5th place. John Juanda took control of the middle part of the tournament but was unable to finish higher than 4th missing out on his 5th WSOP title. In the end it was Michael Mizrachi who was the last player standing when he defeated Russian Vladimir Schemelev for his first WSOP bracelet and $1,500,000.
We here at Poker From the Rail would like to take .00001% credit for his win since we just posted yesterday about Mizrachi being one of the top players without a bracelet.
$50,000 Player’s Championship final table results:
1st – Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi – $1,559,046
2nd – Vladimir Schmelev – $963,375
3rd – David Oppenheim – $603,348
4th – John Juanda – $436,865
5th – Robert Mizrachi – $341,429
6th – David Baker – $272,275
7th – Daniel Alaei – $221,105
8th – Mikael Thuritz – $182,463
There are some great names returning for Day 2 of the $5,000 Shootout and others who came up just short. Phil Ivey was one of those who played out the entire table only to find himself with an unfortunate second place “bubble”. 36 players return to play 4 shootout tables and the remaining field contains Tom “durrrr” Dwan, James Akenhead, Max Pescatori, Justin “BoostedJ” Smith, Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks, Blair Hinkle, John Duthie, and Chris Bell (just to name a few). We’re still a little fuzzy on the math for the shootout but will track down the details. Will they play a 4-handed final table?
Update: The $5,000 Shootout started with six 6-handed tables making for a 6-handed final table.
This year’s Limit Deuce to Seven Triple Draw event drew a bigger crowd than 2009 with 291 players. 87 return today and attempt to work their way to the final 6-handed table. Salim Hanna begins the day with the chip lead with Hoyt Corkins right on his tail. Some of the top chip counts belong to Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, Tom “Donkeybomber” Schneider, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro. 30 spots are paid with the restart kicking off at 15:00PT.
$2,500 Deuce to Seven Lowball Draw (Limit) top 10:
1 – Salim Hanna – 65,400
2 – Hoyt Corkins – 63,400
3 – Davidson Matthew – 56,400
4 – Brian Tate – 56,200
5 – Jameson Painter – 55,200
6 – Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler – 52,900
7 – Jaime Kaplan – 51,800
8 – Jeffrey Lisandro – 49,500
9 – Greg “FBT” Mueller – 46,500
10 – Jordan Siegel – 46,300
Today’s new event is not your standard $1,500 NLHE tournament as our newest Full Tilt pro Annette Obrestad has landed and this will be her first Vegas WSOP tournament. We will try to track her progress throughout the tournament to see how it goes.
Update: Obrestad has been knocked out before I could even hit the publish button. They got all the chips in the middle with Obrestad ahead with a set versus kings up. Her opponent binked the suckout on the river.
Day 5 pictures after the jump:
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, James Akenhead, Michael Mizrachi, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
2009 World Series of Poker Main Event “November Nine”
The big weekend is finally here. All the players are in town, ESPN is putting the final touches on the stage at the Penn & Teller Theater, spectators will soon begin queueing up to get the best seats in the house, people are starting to jockey the big wigs for prime access. The 2009 November Nine players will take their places tomorrow around noon and we will have a new World Series of Poker Champion by Tuesday morning.
It didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things as soon as my feet were on the ground. The cab drivers, bartenders, and dealers all have an opinion on who they think will win. Most seem to want Phil Ivey to win it all, many opinions about what he needs to do to get it done. WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack has already met with chip leader Darvin Moon and he is reportedly head-to-toe in New Orleans Saints gear. The exact same Darvin everyone saw on TV. Media credential request were from all over the globe and seems to be even more mainstream media showing an interest in the game.
I will be back on this space Saturday afternoon and bring hourly updates as the game proceeds down to the remaining two players. Those two will return Tuesday evening at 10pm PT to crown the champion. I will be tracking the three Full Tilt sponsored players, Phil Ivey, James Akenhead, and Steve Begleiter, as well as everything that happens until we have a victor.
Listed below you can find our 2009 November Nine Handicapping posts:
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 1
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 2
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 3
In Phil Ivey news, ESPN’s E:60 program ran a special on the most famous November Nine players to go along with the Insider article I wrote about earlier. After the jump you can find the clip from the episode.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, James Akenhead, Phil Ivey, Steven Begleiter, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
2009 World Series of Poker Bracelets
Photo credit: Pokerati.com
There are just over two weeks remaining before the poker world once again focuses it’s attention upon the Rio Hotel and Casino where the 2009 November Nine will gather around a table and play for the world championship. The players are preparing themselves in different ways. Some with coaches, others trying to stay as lowkey and relaxed as possible, still others are practicing non-stop. Or if you are Phil Ivey you continue to pound away at the dead money sitting around the Bellagio poker room.
Today brings our third and final installment of the November Nine preview. I am joined by two bloggers to help handicap the 9 players at this year’s Main Event final table and we end it with the three smallest chip stacks. Phil Ivey is by far the biggest name but starts with just 9,765,000 in chips. “Those-in-the-know” have set his official odds more along the lines of the bigger stacks around the table, a credit to the experience and talent he’ll bring along.
This post also highlights the two non-US born players in Antoine Saout and James Akenhead. Saout is the unknown Frenchman while Akenhead is regular figure around the UK tournament scene with his poker playing friends. Both have plenty of work ahead of them if they wish to make a big run for the title.
Our two guest bloggers, “Spaceman” the consummate professional writer and “Riggstad” the half-breed poker player/gambler, give you their opinions below. Once again odds and lines are strictly for informational and educational purposes, any loses due to our information is on your head. If you use this information to win, we will accept any credit/reward.
Don’t forget to check out the ESPN broadcast over the next two weeks as the field goes from seven tables to just one. Day 7 will be shown on October 20th at 20:00ET and Day 8 on October 27th at the same time.
2009 November Nine chip counts:
Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
Jeff Shulman = 19,580,000
Joe Cada – 13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
James Akenhead – 6,800,000
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 after the jump:
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Antoine Saout, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, James Akenhead, Jason "Spaceman" Kirk, Phil Ivey, Riggstad, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The 2009 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event final table was just about as stacked as you could ask. Granted it would have been nice to see Texas Dolly or Men “The Master” make it through. Tony Cousineau has a shot and who wouldn’t have loved to see former footie star Teddy Sheringham take a crack at the poker stars for a bracelet. No one would complain about having Liz Lieu amongst the final table players. All that being said, we had two member of the WSOP November Nine (James Akenhead and Antoine Saout), the father of a November Nine’r (Jeff Shulman, born of Barry Shulman), two time WSOP bracelet winner Chris Bjorin, 2009 WSOP bracelet winner Matt Hawrilenko, monster player Jason Mercier, and some casual player named Daniel Negreanu.
My completely biased goal of seeing James Akenhead win the title for Team Full Tilt before turning his attention to the big bracelet in November was shot down in flames early. Akenhead busted in 9th but still accomplished a fantastic feat. That left just Matt Hawrilenko as the last Full Tilt pro standing in the field, and out he goes in 8th place. That left me “watching” a 7 handed table for the WSOPE Main Event title and I could be completely unbiased and professional.
It would be great to see a huge run by the other member of the November Nine, Antoine Saout, for a great story leading into that final table. Saout was out in 7th. Quiet Chris Bjorin came to the table with 2 bracelets and nearly $4,000,000 in career earnings. He doesn’t get a lot of press outside the poker media, this time he walked out the door in 6th place. Markus Ristola was a complete unknown to me, apparently an up and coming Finnish player. Out in 5th, thus shrinking the field to a level easily followed and no more hurried research necessary.
All four remaining players previously won WSOP bracelets. Daniel Negreanu with 4 titles. Jason Mercier, Barry Shulman, and Praz Bansi with one each. It was the long fought battle everyone expected. Last year’s marathon heads up match between John Juanda and Stanislav Alekhin went into the morning, this one came damn near sunrise itself. Mercier dropped in 4th and Bansi followed in 3rd leaving a monster match between Shulman and Kid Poker. There were some incredible swings throughout play and I would just butcher the re-telling of it if I tried. I was following along with the PokerNews.com coverage, you can find all of it here.
In the end Negreanu was unable to overcome a classic suck-resuck when he was just a lonely river card away from the winning the WSOPE Main Event title. That bracelet will now belong to Cardplayer Media mogul Barry Shulman who hopes the luck will rub off on his son Jeff when he begins play with the November Nine.
This was a great run up to the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event final table coming in just a few short weeks. Standby for more coverage of the November Nine as we get closer.
No word yet on whether Barry Shulman will follow his son’s example with the bracelet and “throw it in the garbage”.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, James Akenhead, Matt Hawrilenko, WSoP-E
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
Vivek Rajkumar was my pick to be the surprise standout at this year’s World Series of Poker. He was finishing up his best year at the tables which started with a WPT win at the Borgata in September. Unfortunate his heater did not continue as his only cash this year was a 15th place in one of the many $1,500 donkaments.
Yesterday he continued the streak of Full Tilt pros making a run at the online equivalent $200k Double Deuce with an 8th place finish. We had a great shot at two red letter pros at the final table until Scott Fischman imploded coming down the stretch. I often wonder how players with so much behind them take a serious run at a $20 buyin event, but they keep doing it. Second place finished “timmay28″ is my favorite example of the Double Deuce style of play. When in doubt, shove 100 BB’s in the pot and pray nothing bad happens. It worked at the WSOP Main Event so it must be good here.
Newly crowned red letter pro and 2009 November Nine memeber James Akenhead made a fine showing this weekend with a 31st place finish (highest amongst Team Full Tilt) in the $750,000 Guarantee. I hope to have a WSOP profile of our newest UK grinder sometime this month.
While these folks spent their afternoon tearing up the Sunday Majors, I took some time to punish my fragile ego by playing some micro-limit cash games. I’m working on my next Full Tilt Poker Academy Challenge and also trying to work off the newly awarded “Biggest Bonus Ever“. You have picked up your bonus haven’t you?
It was a never ending string of frustration as I ran into bad play after bad play where Mother Variance made it quite clear it would not be my day. I will forgo the tales of running flush cards and disgusting two outers because no one likes a bad beat story. Also, the running position of the bloggers is to charge $1 per bad beat story which could get quite expensive spread of my reading audience.
I’ll continue working off the bonus and trying to earn my first Iron Man badge. I’ll also be praying to the poker god to turn Variance in my direction.
Click the link above to learn about the new $100 bonus available to ANYONE who earned at least 1 FTP point before July 28th. Big Money Sunday numbers after the jump.
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, James Akenhead, Vivek Rajkumar
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
You would be hard pressed to find a single person in the Amazon Room or across the poker world that did not want to see Phil Ivey make the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event final table. He’s gone and completed that task after so many close calls over the years.
If there is one way to describe Ivey’s day it would be “grinding”. He caught a pocket jacks twice in the early going, losing both and knocking down his chip stack. The rest of the day he spent picking his spots and playing poker while others seemed to panic and make bad moves. He picked off Jamie Robbins with a preflop all-in AT but there were no other major swings.
The rest of the field contains three other Full Tilt sponsored players in James Akenhead, Steve Begleiter, and Eric Buchman.
I will return tomorrow with profiles and more stories from Day 8.
Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
Seat 2 – James Akenhead – 6,800,000
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
Seat 4 – Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
Seat 5 – Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 13,215,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000
Update: We’ve begun profiling and handicapping the 2009 November Nine. Links below.
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
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Eric Buchman, James Akenhead, Steve Begleiter, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
12:00pm:
It’s our final day sitting in the Amazon Room and bound to be the longest of the entire series. The stakes for the players are daunting, 9 of the remaining 27 will be guaranteed at least $1,000,000 and 3 months of publicity and scrutiny. One of these players will be crowned the new World Series of Poker Champion and over $8,000,000.
Most predictions have us playing out at least 6 levels of play before we know who those players will be. That will take us into the very early morning. Phil Ivey himself said he thinks it will take 8 levels of play. Things will get loopy here before we are done.
There are few that would say they would love to see Phil Ivey make the final 9 players, as the WCP boys say, it’s good for poker. The amount of interest and publicity generated for the game would go be tremendous. He will start the day on the ESPN feature table in front of a packed audience. Fellow red letter Full Tilt pro James Akenhead will be sitting at the outer table looking to join his teammate.
As happens in these situations, Full Tilt also will also following a few new names throughout the day. Andrew Lichtenberger, Marco Mattes, Steve Begleiter, Eric Buchman, and Warren Zackey.
The instructions have been handed out and cards are in the air. Look for regular updates throughout the day. Starting chip counts after the jump.
1:00pm:
Surely I won’t jinx this but we lost 3 players during that first hour including the last woman in the field Leo Margets. There seems to be little action other than those bustout hands. Phil Ivey doubled up one player, Nick Maimone, with a dominating hand that didn’t hold up. All the money went in pre-flop with Ivey holding JJ and Maimone Q5 soooted.
Other than those hands, the Full Tilt players are feeling everything out and still hanging in there.
Eliminations this hour:
25 – Francois Balmigere – $352,832
26 – Jesse Haabak – $352,832
27 – Leo Margets – $352,832
2:15pm:
Players are heading off on their first break of the day. Ivey and Akenhead took some hits, Akenhead battled back, Steve Begleiter knocks out a favorite, and things are getting testy.
When this episode of the 2009 World Series of Poker is broadcast, there will be a new name filling the internet with his lucksakery. Nick Maimone pulled a rabbit out of his hat against Phil Ivey then turned around and hit another double up with a two outer. On a Q84 board, he insta-called Jordan Smith’s all-in with the almighty baby pair of sevens. He was up against Smith’s pocket tens but we all know what happens. A black seven on the turn for another suckout.
Phil Ivey double up another shortstack, once again with pocket jacks. This time his opponent held more the a naked queen, holding two of the ladies. It was a monster stack but it was another hit to the favorite. James Akenhead has took a beating early this hour but battled back from a low of 3 million back up to 10 million.
The only elimination of the hour came at the expense of Antonio Esfandiari, one of the few famous faces left in the field. He collects $352,832 but would rather be playing in November. I’m sure the ESPN gang feels the same way.
Some unofficial chip counts at the first break:
Steven Begleiter – 15,200,000
Eric Buchman – 12,000,000
James Akenhead – 10,000,000
Andrew Lichtenberger – 8,400,000
Phil Ivey – 6,300,000
Warren Zackey – 4,100,000
Marco Mattes – 795,000
3:30pm:
Nick Maimone continues to run like god. This should make for some great TV and even better fodder for the forums. The player who got him money in bad against Phil Ivey has been hitting big hands and bigger flops as the day progresses. The lastest victim of Maimone was George Caragiorgas who had the misfortune of running into his pocket Kings, flopped set and turned quads. Maimone may never fold a hand again the rest of this tournament.
Ivey and Akenhead continue to struggle and it will be a grind from here on out. We’ve just lost out 9th player of the day getting us down to the final two tables. Steve Begleiter and his posse are making quite a bit of noise at the secondary table and has moved to third place in chips with 1,600,000.
The clock has been paused as they re-draw for the final 18. Players will also now see a jump in pay to $500,577 for 16th to 18th.
Unofficial chip counts midway through the level:
Steven Begleiter – 16,600,000
Eric Buchman – 16,000,000
James Akenhead – 9,600,000
Andrew Lichtenberger – 6,650,000
Phil Ivey – 5,435,000
Eliminations this hour:
19 – Tommy Vedes – $352,832
20 – George Caragiorgas – $352,832
21 – Jonathan Tamayo – $352,832
22 – Warren Zackey – $352,832
23 – Marco Mattes – $352,832
4:45pm:
Players are heading off on their second break of the day at the end of Level 31 and there was a lot of action as the clock ran down. We lost Andrew Lichtenberg early in the hour then things slowed down. Pots were being shipped around with very few all-ins. On the last hand of the level we had all-in and calls on both tables.
On the feature table Steve Begleiter knocked out Ian Tavelli when they both got the chips in the middle after a ragged flop, unfortunately for Tavelli his pocket 9′s were way behind the kings which held up. On the secondary table Ludovic Lacay and Jeff Shulman were all-in preflop racing with 77 versus AKo. The flopped king was enough to knockout our 16th player.
All four remaining Full Tilt players find themselves sitting at the ESPN feature table. Phil Ivey (6,800,000), James Akenhead (10,100,000), Eric Buchman (16,000,000), and Steve Begleiter (27,890,000) who appears to have the chip lead at this time.
3 players dropped this level leaving us just 6 eliminations from the November Nine. There has also been a bump in the payouts with 13th through 15th receiving $633,022.
16 – Ludovic Lacay – $500,577
17 – Ian Tavelli – $500,577
18 – Andrew Lichtenberg – $500,577
For seven weeks the Amazon Room was full of donkeys and lemurs, sharks and fish
On the last day it’s just a small bright light in the corner
6:00pm:
My wish for everyone to see monster lucksack Nick Maimone at the final table has not come true. The broadcast will show you some of the action but 3 months of analyzing his play would be worth it. He became a victim of his own actions when he snapped-called all his chips with two overs and a gutshot draw, with one of his overs no good. If there was to describe it faster than “snap-call” I would try. He couldn’t wait to get his chips in the middle. Full Tilt sponsored player Eric Buchman had top pair with a open end straight draw which turned into trip on the turn and a straight on the river. Maimone is out of the event but takes away $633,022 and the knowledge he’ll be the talk of the forums for months to come.
With that hand, Full Tilt now occupies the top two spots on the leaderboard with Phil Ivey and James Akenhead still very much in contention. That was the only player we lost during the first hour of Level 32. Below are the unofficial chip counts for the four remaining Full Tilt players.
Steven Begleiter – 28,400,000
Eric Buchman – 25,280,000
James Akenhead – 9,460,000
Phil Ivey – 6,540,000
Elimination this hour:
15 – Nick Maimone – $633,022
Eric Buchman has been making moves all day and goes to dinner close to the chip lead
7:00pm:
We’ve finished the 3rd level of play for the evening and the players are heading off on their dinner break. 14 players still remaining after 6 hours of play and things have definitely slowed down. We still have four Tilters in the field with Steve Begleiter and Eric Buchman still leading the field, James Akenhead climbing the leaderboard until a pre-break hit, and Phil Ivey lurking in the background.
I’d love to tell stories about Ivey pushing the other players around and making big moves but he’s simply been playing a patience game with his stack. In a tournament that he’s seen so many players disregarding their chipstack in relation to the blinds with overbets and calls, Ivey has been taking his time and picking spots to grab pots. While he’s in the bottom half of the leaderboard, no one is counting him out.
Unofficial chip counts:
Steven Begleiter – 26,400,000
Eric Buchman – 25,950,000
Phil Ivey – 7,100,000
James Akenhead – 2,600,000
Eliminations this hour:
NONE!
9:30pm:
The talk during dinner break was how quickly we would lose somebody coming back from the dinner break, belly full of food and confidence. We came close to a knockout almost immediately when shortstack Jamie Robbins three-bet allin straight into aces. Robbins tens were toast up until the 5%-er ten hit the river. The room erupted and we continued on with 14 players.
In a very “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment, a colleague pointed out an Associated Press story on ESPN.com which oddly enough states that Phil Ivey has been eliminated from the 2009 World Series of Poker. Screenprint on the left.
“Among those eliminated on Wednesday was Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, who was one of only two prior World Series of Poker tournament winners left as play began Wednesday, along with seven-time gold bracelet winner Phil Ivey.”
Odd considering I am currently watching him play on the ESPN table at the moment. I’m sure the article will be corrected, removed, annihilated before long.
Before the end of this level’s first hour we did find ourselves with two knockouts leaving just 3 away from the November Nine. We’ll also see a new bump in payouts with $896,730 for 10th through 12th.
13 – James Calderaro – $633,022
14 – Ben Lamb – $633,022
Unofficial Full Tilt chip counts:
Eric Buchman – 35,980,000
Steven Begleiter – 27,730,000
Phil Ivey – 8,400,000
James Akenhead – 6,150,000
10:00pm:
Well that certainly didn’t take very long. Within 30 minutes of my last update we dropped two people in a hurry. On the secondary feature table, Billy Kopp put 80BBs in the middle drawing completely dead. He was involved in the hand with Darvin Moon who felted him with QJd versus 53d on an all diamond flop. No card could save him and he was gone from the side stage before the river.
Almost immediately after Phil Ivey called the all-in of Jamie Robbins. Ivey’s ATh help up against Robbins’ KQo to suddenly get us looking for one more elimination to form the November Nine. Both tables will now combine to play 10-handed until that person is gone.
Full Tilt is represented by four players. Phil Ivey, Steve Begleiter, Eric Buchman, and James Akenhead guarantee Tilt will have at least 3 faces when the final table is played. Akenhead enters 10-handed play as the shortstack.
Chip counts for the final 10:
Darvin Moon – 44,300,000
Eric Buchman – 36,780,000
Steven Begleiter – 26,495,000
Jeff Shulman – 17,900,000
Jordan Smith – 15,430,000
Joseph Cada – 13,400,000
Kevin Schaffel – 13,080,000
Phil Ivey – 10,210,000
Antoine Saout – 10,200,000
James Akenhead – 5,100,000
10:45pm:
Unbelievable! Just like that we lost Jordan Smith (his aces versus Darvin Moon’s set) and we have our November Nine.
Phil Ivey makes the final table!
I’ll be back tomorrow with a complete rundown after everything settles down.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Eric Buchman, James Akenhead, Phil Ivey, Steve Begleiter, WSOP
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