Poker From The Rail
a Poker Blog brought to you by Full Tilt Poker
Posted by admin | Filed under Heads Up
Erik Seidel’s journey to the final in photos
Round 1 – Allen Cunningham
Round 2 – Jennifer Harman
Round 3 – Phil Gordon
Quarter-Final – Vanessa Selbst
Semi-Final – Andrew Robl
Final – Chris Moneymaker
Tags: allen cunning, Allen Cunningham, andrew robl, championship, Chris Moneymaker, Erik Seidel, heads up, Jennifer Harman, nbc, Phil Gordon, poker final
Posted by admin | Filed under Heads Up
UPDATE: Erik Seidel plays Chris Moneymaker in the final
Erik Seidel has taken down some top players on his quest for yet another big win of 2011 at the Heads-Up Poker Championship. He now faces Andrew Robl in the Semifinal. Chris Moneymaker takes on Jonathan Duhamel in the other Semifinal. Keep updated with how it all unfolds over on AlCantHang’s live blog of Day 3.
Here’s what Phil Gordon had to say about facing Seidel before their game yesterday.
Erik and Andrew about to get started:
Tags: 2011, championship, Erik Seidel, nbc heads up poker, Phil Gordon, semifinal
Posted by Dave McCarthy | Filed under Bloggers Corner
If you’ve never checked it out, Full Tilt’s Pro Chat Archive has a collection of table chats between the Pros and fans. People ask some strange questions…
Tags: Chris Ferguson, durrrr Challenge, Isildur1, Phil Gordon, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan
Posted by Dave McCarthy | Filed under Bloggers Corner
It’s been a busy year so far. Here’s a quick review of the top stories of the year (through the first six weeks of it).
If you think a story is missing, please email me at DaveFromTheRail@gmail.com to voice your concern. I’d be happy to run a “Corrections/Retractions” feature to highlight my mistakes.
#5: A Texas pawn shop sold the 2005 WSOP $5,000 no-limit holdem championship bracelet, formerly belonging to TJ Cloutier, on eBay for just over $4,000. Cloutier admitted to pawning it when short on cash. Cake Poker bought the bracelet and said: “We can’t, in good conscience, keep it from the man who rightfully won it; which is why we’ve decided to return it to TJ Cloutier… just as soon as we’re done having some fun with it.”
The top 4 stories can be found after the jump…
Tags: durrrr Challenge, Full Tilt Poker Academy, Isildur1, Phil Gordon, Phil Ivey, Rush Poker, Tom Dwan
Posted by Dave McCarthy | Filed under Bloggers Corner, The Week at FTP
In case you’re unfamiliar with Tom “durrrr” Dwan, the youngest member of Team Full Tilt started with a $50 bankroll in 2004 and is now considered one of the best high stakes players in the world. He recently issued the “durrrr Challenge.” Durrrr and an opponent (the first is Patrik Antonius) play four tables of heads up NLHE or PLO until they’ve reached 50,000 hands. At that point, if the opponent is up by as little as a dollar, Durrrr will give him $1.5 million. If Durrrr is ahead, the opponent gives him $500,000. The winner keeps the money won during the challenge, too.
The most recent session of The Challenge, which ended early Tuesday morning, saw Durrrr extend his lead over Antonius to $1.4 million after 32,795 hands.
The Full Tilt Poker Academy just released part 1 of Phil Gordon’s interview with Durrrr in which the latter discusses:
- What possessed him to offer 3-1 odds against, well, the world
- If his lead in The Challenge will affect his strategy
- Learning poker and improving his game
Part 2 will feature a look at some of the big hands from the durrrr Challenege.
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Also, sources at the home office tell me that over 10,000 people have already read Durrrr’s latest blog post, “A Year in Recap and Isildur Part 1.” Durrrr, incidentally, was an English major at Boston University before pursuing poker full time.
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Lastly, Full Tilt has created a website where you can check the status of The Challenge, watch replays of the biggest hands, and more.
Tags: durrrr Challenge, Full Tilt Poker Academy, Phil Gordon, Tom Dwan
Posted by Dave McCarthy | Filed under Bloggers Corner
Hello Railers,
This is my first post, and I’m honored to be joining AlCantHang as a blogger here at Poker from the Rail.
I plan to post regularly about general poker news, as well as happenings within the Full Tilt community. The rest – news commentary, poker humor, strategy essays – I’d like to leave to all you readers. I’ve created an email address, DaveFromTheRail@gmail.com, for you to submit anything you would like to see up here. Ideally, this blog will contain a great deal of reader generated content.
If you have any comments, criticisms, or just need to get a bad beat story off your chest, please feel free to email me.
Here’s a quick roundup of general and Full Tilt news, which should serve as an example of the kinds of posts I’ll be producing:
General Poker News:
On Monday, a New Jersey State Senate committee, citing potential revenue gains, approved a bill to amend the state constitution to allow sports betting in Atlantic City casinos and New Jersey racetracks. The measure would pave the way for possible legalization of intrastate online gambling. The point is moot, however, unless the federal government eliminates its ban on sports betting. (Federal law bans sports betting in all but Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon; only limited parlay wagering is allowed in the last three. Barney Frank (D-MA) is leading the charge in Washington to legalize and regulate online gambling.)
If the bill is approved by the state legislature, it would be sent via referendum to the people of New Jersey.
The Pros This Week:
Tom “durrrr” Dwan published his first blog post of 2010 at durrrr.com. The post is titled “a long year in recap, and isildur part 1″ and in it the Full Tilt Red Pro discusses swings, Isildur1, and some of the impetus behind his offering the fan favorite durrrr Challenge. Dwan also promises to post more often this year, announcing that he will donate $10,000 to charity any month he doesn’t write at least three posts.
February 8 must have been a busy day for Dwan. After blogging, he played 883 hands with Patrik Antonius and extended his lead in the Challenge by $314,828 to just under $1.4 million. You can watch the biggest hands replayed and check official Challenge stats at FullTiltPoker.com/durrrr-vs-antonius.
New At the Academy:
The Full Tilt Poker Academy, which offers teaching videos, interactive lessons, and more, recently added some new content, including an interview of Tom Dwan by Phil Gordon. In a smart and candid discussion, the Dean of the Poker Academy asks the young star about the durrrr Challenge, improving one’s game, and what it takes to be a world class player.
Full Tilt News:
The Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) XV kicks off Wednesday at 9pm ET with a $200 NLHE tournament hosted by Erik Seidel. Check FullTiltPoker.com for the full schedule of events, list of challenges, and all other things FTOPS.
Tags: Barney Frank, durrrr Challenge, Erik Seidel, FTOPS, Full Tilt Poker Academy, Phil Gordon
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Each year before the World Series of Poker Main Event, the poker elite, pro athletes, celebrities, movies stars, and recording artists descend upon the Amazon Room to play poker in the Ante Up for Africa charity tournament. They were here to raise both money and awareness for the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The tournament was hosted by poker legend Annie Duke and Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle.
Some of the celebrities making an appearance were Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Alexander, Brad Garrett, Sarah Silverman, Jennifer Tilly, and rapper Nelly. Athletes Marlon Shirley, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Mike Tyson were also battling it out. Of course all the top poker pros donated their time and money to the cause.
I’ve posted a few pictures from the day for your entertainment.
Mike Matusow and Chau Giang kid around during the tournament
Good Will Hunting co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck hang with Marco Traniello before the tournament began
WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack meets with Don Cheadle
More photos after the jump:
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Chau Giang, Chris Ferguson, David Singer, Don Cheadle, Jeffrey Pollack, Jennifer Harman, Joe Reitman, Marco Traniello, Marlon Shirley, Mike Matusow, Phil Gordon, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It’s been two full weeks and the days are starting to blurrrr, just like all my media friends told me they would. The railbirds and players are all starting to look the same. There are those players which have been grinding it away every single day without regard to their health or appearance. They won’t be able to last much longer without proper rest and/or medical attention.
The start of the week has been odd in the Amazon Room, there have actually been a few quiet days. Monday brought only one new event and Tuesday’s events did not draw monster fields or groupies. The cash games continued to push their way from the cages back towards us folks in media row. We know it’s just the calm before the weekend storm.
Yesterday we had the loudest moment of the World Series of Poker from the rail. It was on the secondary feature table and brought to us by the Ladies Championship final table. I will refrain from specifics lest I be chastised but it involved a crazy runner runner bad beat and the sound likely blasted through the walls of the Amazon Room. The military could bottle it to be used as a non-lethal weapon.
The main feature table brought us a battle of the online poker rooms for the $10,000 Omaha/8 World Championship. Among the players were Scott Clements, Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu. As you can imagine they drew a monstrous crowd who cheered on their favorite. Of those three, Full Tilt pro Scott Clements last the longest but was unable to secure FTP’s third bracelet of the series when he fell short to Dan Alaei who picked up his second WSOP bracelet.
I suspect this was the last slow night of the week when we pick things up on Day 15 with some HORSE and Shootout action. I’ve sworn an oath to never leave media row without my little point and shoot because the wackos will start making their way to the Amazon Room looking for the ESPN cameras to pick up their goofy costumes. What they do not realize is that the full ESPN production team will not be back here until the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament starts.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Phil Gordon, Scott Clements, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail, Full Tilt Poker Academy
With the World Series of Poker just a few days away, this might be my last push at running a Full Tilt Poker Academy challenge 5 Common Hold’em Leaks. This went also went quickly right on the tail of doing the Pre-Flop Play Challenge which shared many similarities to this one. Hand selections before the flop, action after the flop, and overall profitability while dodging situations for big down swings.
The challenge was completed over a weekend of multi-tabling the microlimit NLHE games again with the same results. I’m also using the lessons learned through the Bankroll Management challenge to grind my bankroll properly without ever risking the entire thing with one swing of variance.
Listed below are the tasks for the challenge as well as some of my notes.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Full Tilt Poker Academy, Phil Gordon
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail, Full Tilt Poker Academy
I heard awhile ago that we were about to see the launch of the Full Tilt Poker Academy and I was pretty excited. I know the principle people involved in the project, leaving little doubt that the new site would be impressive and educational. The roster of players involved alone guarantees an increase in poker understanding in just a few sessions.
At first glance you can find four short lessons that will kick start your game:
Chris Ferguson – Bankroll Managment
Andy Bloch – Math Made Easy
Howard Lederer – Betting Basics
Phil Gordon – 5 Common Hold’em Leaks
There are other lessons, sessions with the pros where they walk you through their actions in specific hands, podcasts with various players, and different challenges to test your new skills on the Full Tilt Poker tables.
I’ve only spent a few hours digging deep into the Academy to get my initial response. I will spend the next few days really getting into the material and bring you my thoughts in my next post. I am also looking for other players/bloggers interested in sharing their thoughts. If you would like to contribute, you can leave a comment on the blog or send an email to battleofthebloggers@fulltiltpoker.com.
Other posts about the Full Tilt Poker Academy and challenges:
Full Tilt Poker Academy – First Challenge
Full Tilt Poker Academy – Bankroll Management Challenge
Full Tilt Poker Academy – Pre-flop Play Challenge
Tags: AlCantHang, Andy Bloch, Bloggers on the Rail, Chris Ferguson, Full Tilt Poker Academy, Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon
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