Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Jennifer Harman at the $10,000 Stud/8 World Championship final table
(Photographer/WSOPphotos.com)
After walking in the door of the Amazon Room yesterday and getting some writing done I decided to chat up my fellow members in the pressbox. On paper it looked like a rare slow day at the WSOP but we had 18 players returning at 3:30pm to play out the $10,000 Stud/8 World Championship. The event had yet to reach the money after two days of play, it was a split-pot stud game, the stacks were deep and the players were all world class. I was taking an unofficial poll to judge how long we thought the day would run. I set the line at 5am with most taking the over.
The event restarted with a great chance for Full Tilt to pick up it’s second WSOP bracelet of the series with 6 of the final 18 wearing the red and white patches. John Juanda, Jen Harman, Steve Zolotow, Chip Jett, Toto Leonidas, and Alessio Isaia were all sitting with chips looking for a win. All would make the money except for Chip Jett and the final table would feature three of those.
3 of 8 were great odds for Tilt, then it kept getting better until it was Harman, Juanda, and Zolotow battling it out with Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler and Frank Kassela. That’s when the tournament hit the air breaks bringing the action to a virtual standstill. Each player would take their turn holding the chiplead as the occasional big pot would be formed only to be chopped right down the middle. Kessler was the first of them to find himself all-in but would survive, grind, and build the stack back up. It became a special kind of torture for everyone except those five sitting at the table. The small crowd around the table slowly built with Harman’s husband Marco Traniello’s appearance, “yuvee04″ Bronhstein stopped by to rail Kessler, Shaun Deeb was checking out the action, and there was a dog chilling in the corner.
Things get odd in the Amazon Room after 1am.
Even though it was looking great for Team Full Tilt, things eventually went sideways. Juanda then Zolotow then Harman were all sent to the rail in disappointing fashion leaving the long-suffering, infamous (self-anointed) nit Allen Kessler heads up with Frank Kassela. The poker world was split down the middle when we finally had a winner in Tennessee grinder Kassela. Kessler had to settle for second place and over $275,000.
For the record, the correct bet was under 5am but it certainly felt like later.
Day 13 features two new events, two bracelets, and one big restart. Both of the tournaments starting today will throw us a nice curve by running games which do not feature No Limit Hold’em. First up at noon is a $2,000 Limit Hold’em tournament followed up by the $10,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven World Championship at 5pm. Neither of these events drew over 1,000 players last year but the fields were stacked with some of the best players in the world.
The $5,000 NLHE tournament featured a special field of top class players which was smaller but much more dangerous. There were few tables which didn’t feature a lineup that would scare the chips out of the average grinder. One especially interesting table right up against the rail drew a crowd 10 fans deep. Around the horn we had Shannon Elizabeth, Dan Heimiller, Chris Ferguson, JJ Lui, David Williams, Brandon Adams, Ashton Griffin, and Alex Bolotin. The poor unknown gentleman in Seat 1 must be wondering what he did to piss off the poker gods. 225 players return today with 72 making the money.
The WSOP will crown two new champions today in the $1,000 NLHE and $1,500 NLHE 6-max tournaments. The $1,000 NLHE Event #13 surprisingly played down to it’s final table on schedule and will feature Full Tilt pro Jared “WacoKidd” Hamby. The 6-max event was a different story, they were only able to eliminate enough of the field to bring back 19 players who will need to work their way to a champion before their day is complete.
Event #13 final table chip counts:
1 – David Baker – 2,553,000
2 – Matt Vance – 1,731,000
3 – Steven Gee – 1,540,000
4 – Nicholas Heather – 993,000
5 – Kyung Han – 613,000
6 – Daniel Thomas – 602,000
7 – Jaren “WacoKidd” Hamby – 423,000
8 – Mats Gavatin – 393,000
9 – Jeff Gross – 281,000
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Chip Jett, Jennifer Harman, John Juanda, Steve Zolotow, 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
Another week has gone by at the 2009 World Series of Poker and things are starting to ramp up. Full Tilt was unable to add to it’s collection of WSOP bracelets but FTP blogger Michael Craig and pro Vitaly Lunkin both put in second place showings. The week started with the NHL Stanley Cup coming to the Amazon Room and ending with the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. kick off. The schedule was lighter than the first three weeks but there was plenty of action to capture.
I present to you the week in pictures from the Full Tilt angle.
The first is by far my favorite photo from the 2009 World Series of Poker. Photographer extraordinaire BJ Nemeth has been capturing some incredible images this year. This photo was taken from atop the bracelet ceremony stage as Phil Ivey picked up his 7th World Series of Poker bracelet. It illustrates the massive amount of players, fans, and media Ivey draws to any event. Click to enlarge and enjoy. More images after the jump.
Photo credit: BJ Nemeth
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Amanda Baker, Bloggers on the Rail, Chau Giang, Erick Lindgren, Erik Cajelais, Howard Lederer, Kristy Gazes, Phil Ivey, Pictures of the Week, Rafe Furst, Scott Clements, Steve Zolotow
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
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.
![ev 34 day 1 imm3008 impdi 2009 World Series of Poker Week 3 in Pictures](/poker-from-the-rail/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/ev-34-day-1_imm3008-impdi.jpg "Amanda \\"Mandy B\\" Baker at the 2009 World Series of Poker")
More pictures after the jump:
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Allen Cunningham, Amanda Baker, Bloggers on the Rail, Cyndy Violette, Fabrice Soulier, Jon Turner, Josh Arieh, Kelly Kim, Lee Watkinson, Nick Schulman, Perry Friedman, Pictures of the Week, Richard Brodie, Roland de Wolfe, Ross Boatman, Scott Clements, Steve Zolotow, Vivek Rajkumar, WSOP
Posted by One Angry Monkey | Filed under Heads Up
Welcome back for another round of action in the Full Tilt Poker Heads-Up Challenge, where we take 64 of our top pros and face them off one by one to determine who’s the top dog of them all. This week’s match is our final six seed versus 13 seed showdown, with Steve “Fly like an eagle” Zolotow taking on Jon “Thank god my favorite band isn’t Limp Bizkit” Turner. Today’s match will once again be slightly abbreviated due to prior engagements (i.e. getting drunk); we’ll try our best to return to our regularly scheduled programming as soon as possible. Let’s get this party started:
Tags: Jon Turner, Steve Zolotow
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