Poker From The Rail» Lee Watkinson

2009 World Series of Poker Day 33 – The Main Event Nears

AlCantHang — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:34:35 +0000

Another day gone by, another near miss for a Full Tilt bracelet. Lee Watkinson had Brandon Cantu all in with a weak A2xx at the Pot Limit Omaha/8 but could not hold off the midling eight on the flop. That propelled Cantu to the chip lead and he was able to continue his lucky run to the bracelet.

The final table became very interesting as the blinds rose and players continued to chop chop their way deeper. While sitting four handed, simply betting the pot preflop involved a significant portion of a player’s chip stack. This caused huge fluctuations in the counts and current leader. In the end, the only Full Tilt logo in the winner’s picture was Gavin Smith jumping in with Cantu.

Team FTP has another bracelet shot later today when Greg “FBT” Mueller goes for his second of the year at the $1,500 Limit Shootout final table. He defeated 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider in a long heads up battle to make it through. The final table will be 8-handed with the winner taking away just under $200,000 and the jewelry.

The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship gallops along (see what I did there?) with still over half the starting field coming along. Gus Hansen leads the way going into Day 3 along with Team Full Tilt members Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, David Chui, Vitaly Lunkin, Huck Seed, Chau Giang and others. They are still 37 players away from the money and final two tables.

Two new tournaments kick off today with something called a Triple Chance $3,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament. This replaces the rebuy events and there are varied strategies for playing. We will see how that goes. The big name pros will be split evenly between this and the $1,500 Stud/8 event starting at 5pm.

Things are getting down to the finish line quickly. Looking at the schedule we only see three new events besides the Ante Up for Africa charity tournament and the Main Event. Tomorrow brings the last of the $1,500 “donkaments” and a $2,500 Limit Deuce to Seven Draw tournament. Tuesday has the $5,000 6-max No Limit Hold’em event and that is it. Those tournament will run us down to the end of the week when the celebs show up for charity and near 7,000 people flood town for the Main Event.

Interesting times my friends.

Restart chip counts after the jump:

Lee Watkinson can only watch as his cards do not hold up for his second bracelet

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: 53

1	Hansen, Gus	686,000
2	Dehkharghani, Ray	643,000
3	Sagstrom, Erik	560,000
4	Brunson, Todd	549,000
5	Habib, Hasan	490,000
6	Nguyen, Scotty	463,000
7	Cremen, Frank	457,000
8	Bach, David	451,000
9	Guoga, Antanas “Tony G”	433,000
10	Sointula, Jani	412,500
11	Bueno, Patrick	380,000
12	Kassela, Frank	379,000
13	Kabbaj, John	376,000
14	Perry, Ralph	348,000
15	Chiu, David	344,000
16	Glantz, Matt	337,000
17	Monnette, John	324,000
18	Chen, Bill	324,000
19	Bechtel, Jim	312,000
20	Lunkin, Vitaly	308,000
21	Wattel, Mike	307,000
22	Wahlbeck, Ville	307,000
23	Billirakis, Steve	300,000
24	Greenstein, Barry	284,000
25	Hansen, Thor	256,000
26	Seed, Huck	244,000
27	Tulchinskiy, Mikail	235,000
28	Chau, Giang	231,000
29	Brunson, Doyle	224,000
30	Clements, Scott	221,000
31	Deeb, Freddy	208,000
32	Grey, David	191,000
33	Hawrilenko, Matt	190,000
34	Turner, Jon	179,000
35	Seidel, Erik	179,000
36	Ferguson, Chris	173,000
37	Rabtsov, Kirill	165,000
38	Schulman, Nick	157,000
39	Ivey, Phil	154,000
40	Gray, Jason	144,000
41	Hennigan, John	142,000
42	Soulier, Fabrice	138,000
43	Antonius, Patrik	131,000
44	Buss, Jerry	130,000
45	Benyamine, David	130,000
46	Lindgren, Erick	114,000
47	Hanson, John	113,000
48	Vallo, Martin	100,000
49	Smith, Justin	87,000
50	Kravchenko, Alex	80,000
51	Alaei, Daniel	63,000
52	Sung, Steve	50,000
53	Richey, Brett	43,000

Event #50 Limit Hold’em Shootout
Buyin: $1,500
Number of Entries: 571
Net Prize Pool: $779,415
First Place Prize: $194,909
Total Spots Paid Out: 64
Players Remaining: 8

1	David Williams	360,000
2	Flaminio Malaguti	360,000
3	Greg Mueller	360,000
4	Joep Van Den Bijgaart	360,000
5	Jose Barbero	360,000
6	Marc Naalden	360,000
7	Matthew Sterling	360,000
8	Millie Shiu	360,000

Event #51 No LImit Hold’em
Buyin: $1,500
Number of Entries: 2,781
Net Prize Pool: $3,796,065
First Place Prize: $664,426
Total Spots Paid Out: 297
Players Remaining: 349

Top 50 chip stacks:

1	Bonita, Christopher	131,700
2	Price, Ryan	130,000
3	Slaubaugh, Cody	125,900
4	Huynh, Phong	123,300
5	Van Zadelhoff, Steven	118,000
6	Armstrong, Kevin	117,700
7	Helder, Jason	117,700
8	Le, Hon	115,900
9	Shelton, Kenneth	105,600
10	Potter, Jason	100,100
11	Vanchiro, Jeffrey	95,400
12	Thibaud, Durand	93,600
13	Bogdan, Aurel	91,300
14	McFadgen, Michael	88,900
15	Gharibian, Tro	88,100
16	Crowe, Owen	88,000
17	Saleh, Christopher	87,200
18	Hudson, Michael	86,900
19	Subilia, Sam	85,300
20	Stocker, William	84,900
21	Jesus Breda, Jorge	83,400
22	Benvenuti, Michael	82,300
23	McClellan, Fitz	80,200
24	Pfund, Doug	79,900
25	Nakhoul, Ben	79,700
26	Vegas, Carlos	79,200
27	Anderson, Chapin	78,900
28	Filippi, Amnon	77,700
29	Kenna, Stephen	77,300
30	Rodriguez, Miguel	75,600
31	Trujillo, Clint	75,200
32	Hasten, Michael	75,000
33	Gagliano, Michael	74,700
34	Walasinski, David	72,900
35	Pilot, Shawn	71,600
36	Meyers, Brandon	71,600
37	Nguyen, Men “The Master”	71,200
38	Chen, Andrew	71,200
39	Brickman, Robert	70,600
40	Fleischer, Terry	69,900
41	Diaz, Robert	69,300
42	Belloso, Rafael	68,400
43	Braband, Tom	67,300
44	Souza, Marc	66,900
45	Hawk, William	66,300
46	Mertz, Jasper	65,200
47	Roberts, Jamie	62,800
48	Marquez, Marco	62,500
49	Florian, Schramm	60,600
50	Tuthill, Nathan	60,300

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker Day 33 – The Main Event Nears

2009 World Series of Poker – Week 3 in Pictures

AlCantHang — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:55:34 +0000

It was another great week for Team Full Tilt. Final tables were populated with players patched up in FTP gear and make a lot of noise. Three bracelets would be brought into the fold by Phil Ivey, Nick Schulman and Greg “FBT” Mueller. If the rest of the poker world wants to catch up, they better start working hard.

It’s Friday so that means it’s time for the Week in Pictures. These are just some of the collection that did not make any posts during the week but are worthy of your time

View of the final table of Event #27 Pot Limit Omaha/8. Three Full Tilt members were present but Roland De Wolfe would defeat Omaha-guru Scott Clements for the title.

More pictures after the jump:

Perry Friedman and John Juanda would find themselves seated next to each other to start the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event #21. Juanda and Ivey have the unofficial lead in the massage therapist challenge. Neither Juanda or Friedman would cash in this event. Gavin Smith would go the furthest for Team Full Tilt just missing the final table. Blogger CK31 would take her Battle of the Blogger tournament prize and ride it to a 39th place finish in the money.

Lee Watkinson playing in Event #24. One of the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournaments where the big guns are generally looking to double up or prepare for the big 5pm game. Watkinson has one cash during the 2009 WSOP for just over $22,000.

Jon “Pearljammer” Turner starting in the $2,500 Omaha/Stud Hi-Low tournament. Turner would make the final table which was loaded with names like Phil Ivey, Carlos Mortensen, and Dutch Boyd. Ivey would get the glory at the end of the day winning his 2nd WSOP bracelet in 2009.

Richard “Quiet Lion” Brodie did not make his appearance at the 2009 World Series of Poker until early this week. Wasting very little time, he entered the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Event #26 and came just one spot from making his first WSOP final table. He finished 10th for a cool $13,000 and change.

At yet another Full Tilt stacked final table, Roland De Wolfe overcame all others including Scott Clements (above) and Andy Black. It always seems Clements is ready to come over the table and take your chips personally. De Wolfe appears to be eyeing up the bracelet, which he would collect at the end of the tournament.

Kelly Kim plays in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament (Event #28). Kim would cash in the tournament, his first cash since finishing 8th in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Coming into the 2009 World Series of Poker many thought this would be the year Vivek Rajkumar made a huge splash, your humble author included. Rajkumar has collected nearly $2,000,000 in tournament earnings since September. Unfortunately Rajkumar has found himself on the wrong end of coolers and bad beats with no cashes in the series so far this year.

Hendon Mobster Ross Boatman made the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha final table as well as John Juanda. Boatman started with the chip lead but would leave the tournament is 4th place. Also in the picture is eventual winner J.C. Tran.

French favorite Fabrice Soulier playing in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament. Soulier would go on to make the final table and finish in 7th. To date he has 5 cashes during the 2009 World Series of Poker. Blogger Lana “LJ” Maier would make another deep run and represent well. She finished just short of the final table.

Team Full Tilt members Josh Arieh and Steve Zolotow playing in the $10,000 Limit Hold’em World Championship. The tournament would eventually be won by fellow Team Full Tilt member Greg “FBT” Mueller after a long, grueling final table.

Allen Cunningham is another Full Tilt pro who made a late appearance at the series this year. He is playing in Event #34 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament which he would go on to finish in the money.

Nick Schulman considers his action during the No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw World Championship final table. Schulman would go on to win after handling a very tough table that included John Juanda, David Benyamine, Michael Binger, Archie Karas and Ville Wahlbeck.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Week 3 in Pictures

Reader Mail: Low Limit and Beyond

One Angry Monkey — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:58:32 +0000

Welcome back to another round of the constant catastrophe we like to call Reader Mail. Once again, our mailbag has been stuffed to the gills, so let’s give it some breathing room and air a few of these questions out. Email us at pokerfromtherail@fulltiltpoker.com with any comments, questions or certifiably insane rants about that time you thought a bee had stung you but it turns out you were just jabbing yourself in the arm with a pen. Wow, that might’ve been the stupidest thing I’ve ever written (and that’s saying a lot). Anyway, on to the show:

Why do a bunch of the pros waste their time playing the low limit games and tournaments on Full Tilt Poker? Are they broke and building their bankroll, or is there another explanation for these strange occurrences?

As far as I know (and any knowledge I have should be taken with a grain of salt), none of the pros playing the smaller-stakes games are doing it because they’re broke and trying to build a bankroll. You see a bunch of guys like Lee Watkinson, Scott Fischman and Aaron Bartley playing some of the smaller tournaments (as in $24 or less), but I’m pretty sure they’re playing them because they’re nice guys and it’s pretty cool for us small-stakes ballers to get to play at the same table as some of the pros. I’m told our slogan is “learn, chat and play with the pros,” so it really wouldn’t be fair if only the high-stakes players got to play with them. I’m sure Lee, Scott, and Aaron really aren’t playing those tourneys to increase their bankroll; it’s their way of giving back to all the players on the site who can’t afford to sit down at pro limits.

One exception to this rule might be one of our German pros, Chris Klecz. I see her playing the $24 + $2 tourneys all the time, way too often to just be “giving back” to the players on the site. I have absolutely no idea what her bankroll is at these days, but something tells me she’s grinding those tourneys for a reason (i.e. must feed her children?). If I’m wrong Chris and you’re doing this as a way to connect to the low-stakes players, then I apologize. But I don’t think I’m wrong…

Whatever happened to Sit & Go Madness? Will you guys be running that again sometime soon?

That’s a great question; I’m not really sure what happened to SNG Madness. As far as I know, we will be running it again someday. I inquired to minds greater than my own about this matter, but I was told to “shut up and return to your dungeon, slave.” So we see how much respect I get around here at the office. At any rate, my best guess is that you will see the return of SNG Madness sometime in the next few months, but don’t hold your breath in the meantime. If you prefer to hold your breath, there’s really nothing I can do to stop you, but I’m told a lack of oxygen can be bad for your health.

Personally, I’m not too sad about the recent lack of SNG Madnesses. The last time that promotion rolled around I wound up sinking about half of my bankroll into trying win as many $2 SNGs as possible. And yes, upon reading that statement I will now go cry my eyes out on my extra large pilla…

Who is this Bond18 guy, and why is he on Poker From The Rail?

For those of you not in the know, Bond18 is a fellow poker blogger we’ve contracted to travel around the world in 90 days, hit up as many live donkaments as possible, and write trip reports for us. So far he’s been to tourneys in Italy and France and he’s currently donking it up at the WSOP on a daily basis. Check out all his stuff here – it’s pretty good reading, especially if you like hearing about the horrifyingly painful beats laid upon an online guy trying his hand at the live scene.

That’s it for this week folks. Sorry to be so brief, but the madness here at the office is reaching a peak and I need to head back to my dungeon for another round on the rack. Pray for my soul people, I need all the help I can get. Until next week…

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Reader Mail: Low Limit and Beyond

Reader Mail: Rail Talk

One Angry Monkey — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:48:32 +0000

Another week means another opportunity to crack open our mailbox and answer some Reader Mail. The questions are coming in at an overwhelming pace, so keep up the good work. Email us at pokerfromtherail@fulltiltpoker.com if you want your questions answered.

Last week we introduced you to a reader going by the name of “The Chi” who simply wouldn’t leave us the hell alone. We thought that by giving him a shout out and actually posting one of his questions that he’d give us a break. We were wrong. And since the non-stop pestering continues, we have no choice but to respond one more time. Here we go again:

Why isn’t Dan Harrington a member of Team Full Tilt, and do you think he likes roast beef sandwiches?

This question frightened every one in the office to their very core. Last week it was Lee Watkinson that “The Chi” was obsessing with, and that was scary. But at least it had something to do with poker. If possible, this Dan Harrington fascination is even more disturbing. I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to look at a roast beef sandwich without a chill running up my spine.

Deli cuisine aside, I’ll try and answer this question the best that I can. Harrington is more than worthy of consideration for Team Full Tilt; he’s certainly a fine poker player. There are many great pros who don’t belong to Full Tilt Poker’s stable of pros for a variety of reasons. They either have other obligations already or just aren’t interested in online poker in general. Or maybe we don’t want them (just kidding, we’ll take whoever we can sink our claws into).

Whatever the reason may be, the point is this: Chi, put down the sandwich and get a grip. You need to get a life and leave these poor poker pros alone, stat…

At first I didn’t like the avatars, but they’ve grown on me. Any chance that we can make custom avatars in the future?

Ah, a question that I can answer without resorting to childish name calling and snide comments! You actually can get yourself a custom avatar from the Full Tilt Store for a mere one million Full Tilt Points. So start saving up those FTPs today and you could have your very own avatar sometime in the next 50 years.

God, that was easy. A little too easy if you ask me.

Sometimes the railbird chatter is hilarious, especially during FTOPS events. What are some of your favorites?

A poor soul who used to work here and get pwned playing online on a regular basis once typed this classic into the chat box: “I’m so unlucky, if I opened a cemetery, nobody would die.”

Our other favorites include: “How the hell could you play that hand, you no talent ass clown.”

“I hate you, and I hope you die in a grease fire.”

“I hate poker and I hate every one of you. Good luck.”

“Turn off the doom-switch.”

And finally, the comment I use every time that I get sucked out on: “Nice hand, well played. Asshole…”

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Reader Mail: Rail Talk

Reader Mail: Bad Beat Bonanza

One Angry Monkey — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:51:18 +0000

It’s mail call time! And since we have an abundance of Reader Mail flowing in, we’ll skip the big time intro this week and get straight to it. Just as a reminder, email us at pokerfromtherail@fulltiltpoker.com with any thoughts, comments, questions, or insane ramblings. We prefer the latter.

Speaking of insane ramblings, we normally don’t give out the names of the readers who send in mail, but in this case we’ve been forced to make an exception. A reader who simply calls himself “The Chi” has been bombarding us unrelentingly with some of the worst – and honestly, frightening – questions that we’ve received to date. We’ve been avoiding posting any of his emails, but we can’t hold back any longer. Without further ado, this one’s for you Chi:

Why does Lee Watkinson hate me? Every time I play in a Full Tilt Points tourney or a low buy-in Sit & Go, there’s Lee Watkinson. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten my chips in with AA, only to have Lee call me with AJ and hit like 5-of-a-kind Jacks. Leave me alone, Lee. It’s time for you to move up a level.

Chi, Chi, Chi – where did it all go so horribly wrong for you? Did Daddy not love you enough when you were growing up? Maybe he loved you a little too much? Whatever the case may be, seek help.

As for Lee Watkinson, we can only assume he hates you because, well, everyone hates you. We’re sorry you may have been sucked out on a few times, but that’s poker baby. Get over it, Lee does not have it in for you.

As a side note: we’ve contacted Lee and advised him to get a restraining order against you. We can only assume that at this very moment you’re eating pancakes while devising some horribly devious plot against him. You have been fairly warned, now stop.

Have the odds in poker changed with the explosion of online players? Did I miss something in the last five or six years about online poker? Was there a book or a new commandment in the poker bible saying, “Thou shalt play any two face cards?” Please help me out. My bankroll, and more importantly, my poker sanity are at stake.

This email was originally a lot longer, but we had to chop it down due to the fact that we’re too lazy to copy and paste the entire rant. It was mostly about getting sucked out on and certain “set-up” hands where you’re ahead but know that you’re going to lose.

People, we’ve said this before and unfortunately we’re going to have to say it again – bad beats will happen. A lot. If you’re playing the game properly, you’re going to get sucked out on more than most of your opponents. There is no such thing as a “set-up” hand. The cards are going to fall as they may, and you’ll have to learn to live with that.

And no, the odds in poker have not changed with the explosion of online players. There has certainly been a more aggressive style of play born from the online boom, and that might mean you’re going to take a few more bad beats. Stop thinking about your short-term results in poker. The odds say that over the long term, if you play solid poker you’ll come out a winner. Don’t give up yet. (Please note that I am not a professional poker player. I’m not even a winning poker player. Take my advice at your own risk.)

Which game do I want to get into after I’ve outgrown play chips?

I posed this question to The Captain, who only recently moved from play money to the real thing. He told me what a horrible mistake that was, and he now has taken out a second mortgage on his boat.

So if you want to avoid this fate, I suggest reading Chris Ferguson’s tip on bankroll management. “Jesus” was able to miraculously turn $0 into $10,000, so he’d be the one to ask. The point of it all is to start slowly, and never reach beyond your means. Otherwise you might end up just like The Captain.

Keep the great emails coming (except you Chi, leave us alone for the love of God). We’ll chat again next week…

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Reader Mail: Bad Beat Bonanza

The Week at FTP: Political Poker

Big Donkey — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:26:53 +0000

Cold-Decked at the Borgata Winter Open

Lee Watkinson was hoping to keep his heater going in Atlantic City this week, and truth be told, he did a fine job of burning up the felt at the WPT’s Borgata Winter Open. Unfortunately for Lee, he ran out of gas on the final table, busting out of the tournament in fifth place after his pocket 7s failed to improve against Noah Schwartz’s (really?) pocket 8s.

Following his recent victory at the Aussie Millions $3K PLO Event and eighth-place finish in the 6-handed NLH event, Watkinson was one of the favorites to win the Borgata tourney, despite coming to the final table as the short stack. Cold weather and cold cards aside, Lee can keep himself warm by covering himself with the nearly $283K he took away from the Jersey shore.

Also leaving Jersey with some extra cash in his pocket is Full Tilt Poker pro Jared “The WacoKidd” Hamby who took home nearly $32K for finishing the event in 18^th place.

Big Names – Bigger Games

If you’re like us and get a perverse thrill watching the Gross Annual Product of some small African countries change hands in just a few seconds, then you should be checking out the high-stakes ring games on FTP.

Over the past few weeks, Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius has been tearing up the PLO games and, according to our friends over at the High-Stakes DB, he’s up over a million bucks so far this year. Not bad for a month’s work. Other big winners in the big games include the always entertaining Ziigmund, who’s up nearly $750K, and kinexxx, who’s picked up more than $400K at the No-Limit Hold ‘em tables.

On the flip side, Team Full Tilt’s Phil Ivey is down about $511K so far this year, mostly due to some epic heads-up battles with Ziigmund who recently won a single pot worth $399K. Also in the red this year is the always out-spoken Tony G, who has reportedly dropped about $300K over the past month.

A Good Read

Sure, we can occasionally string together a few witty sentences and turn a clever phrase every once in awhile. We’ve even been known to play some poker, which makes us somewhat qualified for this gig. We’re the first to admit, however, that we’re no Jim McManus.

Lucky for us, Jim is. He’s also a friend of FTP who happens to be a pretty good writer on all things poker (check out Positively Fifth Street if you have any doubt). Anyway, Jim has managed to pull himself away from the table for a few minutes to do what he does best – write. Look for his byline in the February 4^th issue of The New Yorker where he profiles one of the hottest names in poker – Barack Obama.

It turns out, not all politicians lie. They just bluff.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

The Week at FTP: Political Poker