Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It wasn’t surprising that Sunday was a more laid back day in the term of historic events but we still saw another huge field with the latest $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament. 3,175 players entered and they imploded their chipstacks to where the field is almost in the money on Day 1. It won’t take long to reach the money today when just 341 players remain and 324 are paid.
We’ll see two more bracelets awarded today in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em and $2,500 Limit Hold’em 6-handed events. Both will require a long evening to get down to the winner as 36 remain in the NLHE and 12 in the Limit. The bracelet winners will have earned their title.
126 players entered the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship and not a soft spot in the house. Each table was a rock garden unto itself with chips very hard to come by. 87 players still remain after the long Day 1, they will return today attempting to play down to their final table. Plenty of top names remain for the railbirds to visit and we’ll see them restart at 3pm.
1 – Sebastien Sabic – 129,900
2 – Alexander Kostritsyn – 105,600
3 – Joe Cassidy – 92,900
4 – Fabrizio Gonzalez – 86,700
5 – Mike Sexton – 85,000
6 – Mikail Tulchinskiy – 80,800
7 – Scott Clements – 80,300
8 – Chris Amaral – 79,700
9 – Chris Tryba – 79,400
10 – Alexander Dovzhenko – 76,700
Other notables: Erick Lindgren (74,000), Hasan Habib (70,500), Marco Liesy (69,600), Pat Pezzin (67,500), Jennifer Harman (65,900), Frank Kassela (64,600), Justin Smith (56,400)
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, David Benyamine, Matt Affleck, Scott Montgomery, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
No pics of Scott Montgomery from yesterday, so going with Amanda “MandyB” Baker
While it looks like a slower day on the calendar, we’ll still be running around the Rio like crazy people. Even though there is only one final table today and one new event, the math tells us we have at least 32 Full Tilt pros mixed throughout the restarting event today. Scott Montgomery shows his mastery of the low buyin with a chance at a second bracelet and both Day 2 restarts are chock full of big names.
I made the mistake last week of dismissing the $1,000 NLH tournament, it wasn’t until they were 5-handed that I realized Tilt’s own Scott Montgomery was cruising along to his first WSOP bracelet. I won’t do that again this week as Montgomery is the middle of the mix again, sitting in the bottom half of the field but with plenty of play left. This road won’t be quite as easy with Mike Beasley and WPT Borgata Poker Open Champion Olivier “livb112″ Busquet between him and bracelet number two. 33 players return at 2:30pm to play until a winner is crowned.
The big ticket tournament yesterday was the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha (aka Four Card Bingo) tournament which drew nearly 100 players more than 2009. Despite the gambling nature of the game we still have 207 players returning to make the money and aim for the final table. 2009 November Nine member Kevin Schaffel ended Day 1 with the chip lead but is being chased by some of the best in the game. Just a few of those in striking distance are Annette Obrestad, John Juanda, Mike Matusow, Justin “BoostedJ” Smith, “Miami John” Cernuto, Barny Boatman, Lee Watkinson, Ted Forrest, and Matt Glantz. We’ll see some quick bustouts early and maybe even make the final 9 before play is schedule to end for the night.
$5,000 Pot Limit Omaha top ten chip counts:
1 – Kevin Schaffel – 178,900
2 – Alex Freiberg – 138,900
3 – Kevin Boudreau – 137,300
4 – Jonas Entin – 118,200
5 – Jarred Solomon – 104,800
6 – Dan Shak – 100,800
7 – Gary Bolden – 100,800
8 – Javed Abrahams – 99,600
9 – Tex Barch – 92,700
10 – Mark Eddleman – 89,600
The $1,500 NLH played exactly according to the formula. Just 290 players of the starting 2,543 survived the massacre of Day 1 leaving them just 20 eliminations from the money. Some of the stories we heard from this tournament throughout the day had me sticking my head outside to check for a full moon. Next time you are busted from a $10 online tournament by someone overplaying 93o or similar to bust you out, imagine playing a live WSOP $1,500 tournament is having that done on a regular basis. The fish are not strictly relegated to the online tables, the have migrated to the desert.
David “The Dragon” Pham* begins Day 2 with the biggest stack among the Full Tilt pros in a field that also contains Andy Bloch, Roland De Wolfe, Liv Boeree, Matt Matros, Shane “shaniac” Schlegler, Peter “Nordberg” Feldman, and 2009 November Nine member Kelly Kim. There is also a chance that Allen “Complainsaw” Kessler will make the money and incredibly his 8th cash of the 2010 WSOP. Play will restart at 2:30pm.
$1,500 No Limit Hold’em top ten chip counts:
1 – Giuseppe Zarbo – 156,500
2 – Roberto Stamerra – 120,100
3 – Andrew Gillis – 120,000
4 – Gregory Roy – 119,600
5 – Sean Prendiville – 110,500
6 – Benjamin Eilers – 109,900
7 – Kyle Knecht – 104,400
8 – Israel Elias – 104,200
9 – Thomas Fridley – 103,600
10 – Kenneth Terrell – 97,200
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, David Pham, Scott Montgomery, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Phil Ivey stands for the U.S. National Anthem during his bracelet ceremony
(Photographer/GreasieWheels)
Just in case you were living under a rock away from the poker over the last week, Phil Ivey captured his 8th career WSOP bracelet in the $3,000 HORSE event over Bill Chen. It was an interesting spectacle with a different atmosphere than the “durrrr” final table a few ago, this final table was stuck our little corner of the Amazon Room without the fan fare or big stadium seating of the main stage.
Two days later Ivey returned to the Pavilion Room for his bracelet ceremony followed by wide open press conference. The picture about was taken by the official WSOP photographer (with creative credit going to B.J. Nemeth) and is something special. You can click the image for the full size picture, it should give you a small feel for the number of people who jammed into the room to see history. Ivey and WSOP TD Jack Effel were joined on stage by Jack Binion.
The rest of the week was full of drama, fun, and of course the continuing parade of Perry Friedman’s hats. You can find just some of our the pictures our very own HeatherB snapped over the last few days. Enjoy after the jump.
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Chris Ferguson, Donnie Vann, Howard Lederer, Huck Seed, Johnny Chan, Kristy Gazes, Mike Matusow, Perry Friedman, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Pictures of the Week, Scott Clements, Scott Montgomery, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
I outed myself yesterday via the Full Tilt WSOP twitter account as a very bad blogger. While my concentration was on Annette Obrestad going for her first final table this summer and Jen Harman a few players from her 3rd WSOP bracelet, I completely missed the fact Full Tilt’s Scott Montgomery was sitting at his own final table. We can be excused at times for not keeping the keenest eye on the weekly $1,000 NLH events as the huge fields rarely make for stacked final tables. Montgomery was a member of the inaugural November Nine in 2008 falling short of the title finishing 5th for over $3,000,000 but he has been looking for a bracelet ever since.
3,102 players left the cashier $1,000 lighter but with a ticket to the lottery, split between two flights over the weekend with just 451 of those returning on Monday afternoon to pick up the battle. They blasted through the money bubble with barely a pause and were one of the few events this summer to finish on schedule by hitting their final table nine with time on the clock. Montgomery came into the final table with the second shortest stack but used it aggressively as players were dropping around him. While we’ve seen some marathon final tables this year, Event #36 lasted less than 8 hours, in the end outplaying opponent Mike Carlson to capture his first WSOP bracelet.
That adds a fifth bracelet to the Full Tilt family following Praz Bansi, Richard Ashby, Jose Luis Velador, and Phil Ivey. After a slow start to the series they are starting to make their presence known.
There were two other great opportunities to add to our total with both Jennifer Harman and Annette Obrestad having a chance to give us the treble for the day. Obrestad began with 13 other players in the NLH Shootout event and was doing very well. She was sitting 2nd in chips with 11 players remaining and a final table seemed to be within easy reach until she lost consecutive races to double up a short stack. Soon thereafter she made a SB move that was picked off knocking out her and the BB. A disappointing finish for Obrestad.
Jennifer Harman was deep in the $2,500 Razz tournament sitting just in front of us here in the press box. It wouldn’t be an easy situation as she found herself sitting with two Player of the Year contenders in Vladimir Shchemelev and Frank Kassela. When the table was 7-handed we had an interesting situation, I looked up and the tournament clock was paused with the players away from the table. I thought may be it was an early dinner break but turns out they all agreed to a quick timeout. 6 of the 7 players wanted to play the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship and registration was going to close shortly. There was also some (remarkably open) talk about chopping the Razz tournament but quickly shot down by both Harman and Kessela with Harman commenting “I don’t buy bracelets, I win them.”
Harman was unable to complete the task of winning her third bracelet after going “card dead”. That seems counterintuitive to the game of Razz, my guess is she kept finding herself rolled up for an insta-muck. She finished the tournament in 6th place. By the end of the night we had our first multiple bracelet winner with Frank Kassela adding to his Stud/8 Championship which he won earlier this summer.
A story is developing as we begin the final day of the Pot Limit Omaha/8 event. 15 players return with some big live and online poker names. The biggest of which is career WSOP bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth beginning the day 4th in chips. While he has 11 WSOP victories to his credit, not a single one of those wins has been in a non-Hold’em game (7 in No Limit Hold’em, 3 in Limit Hold’em, 1 in Pot Limit Hold’em). We’ll keep a close eye on the possible historic run.
It won’t be a cakewalk as the current chipleader is online grinder Ryan “ryanbluf” Karp followed by Ben Lamb, Barry Greenstein, and Tony Cousineau alive with a chance to knock off the Poker Brat. I will be Tweeting (twittering? tweetering?) this tournament throughout the day on the @FullTilt_WSOP account.
In the good news story of the day, Donnie Vann went deep in the event until he ran into one of those crazy PLO8 hands that get everyone. Check out the video linked up.
$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha/8 top ten chip counts:
1 – Ryan “ryanbluf” Karp – 564,000
2 – Steve Jelinek – 538,000
3 – Joel Ettedgi – 419,000
4 – Phil Hellmuth – 331,000
5 – Ben “benba” Lamb – 320,000
6 – John Gottlieb – 277,000
7 – Michael Chappus – 260,000
8 – Jeffrey Baker – 247,000
9 – Barry Greenstein – 204,000
10 – Anders Taylor – 202,000
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Scott Montgomery, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Craig Marquis is one of 9 players vying to become the next World Series of Poker Champion
When they first announced a plan to delay the 2008 WSoP final table until November I was skeptical. It seemed this idea would change the dynamics of the tournament by pausing play for several months but was willing to let that detail go if they were able to really promote the November Nine in the name of the all-powerful cliche, “it’s good for poker”.
I’ve been surprised over the last few months at how little hype was coming out about the WSoP other than the weekly broadcasts of the Main Event. Luckily things have started to ramp up with the final table to be played this weekend at the Penn and Teller Theater in the Rio (and broadcast on Tuesday, November 11th). The poker media and bloggers are starting to pick up the pace as we count down the days. Tuesday evening ESPN aired their Final Table preview with player interviews and commentary from some of the big poker names.
After the jump you can find the ESPN clips on the three members of the Final Table representing Full Tilt Poker.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Craig Marquis, Kelly Kim, Scott Montgomery, WSOP
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