Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Matt Jarvis’ chip stack on Day 2 of the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Event
This is the time of the summer when the entire area can feel the end of the WSOP approaching. The doldrums begin to fade when you look at the schedule to see we are not far from the Main Event. Opportunities to win a bracelet are beginning to fade for those looking for the big time payout, a few of the broke degens have a wild look in their eyes as they continue to chase the dragon, floor staff are just a little less edgy.
All this means is that the end is near.
Besides the Main Event, there are only two more big buy-in tournaments for the railbirds to stare down their favorites. Today is the interesting $10,000 Omaha/Stud Hi-Low Mix, this event was taken off the schedule but returned this year and Phil Ivey is the most recent player to pick up a bracelet in this format. Just prior to the Main Event will be the The Poker Player’s Championship, a $50,000 8-game mix tournament intended to find the best “all-around” player. Last year’s winner Michael Mizrachi will return to defend his title against what should be the toughest field of the year.
The smaller bankrolled players are also running out of events. Only two more $1,500 No Limit Hold’em events remain on the schedule along with a two starting day $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament before the Main Event. There still remain some of the non-NLHE tournaments for those who grow bored with two card bingo including Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw, Mixed Hold’em (Limit/No Limit rotation), Pot Limit Omaha/8, and the $1,000 Ladies Championship.
Some big names picked up bracelets over the weekend and some close calls. Tom “durrrr” Dwan electrified the Amazon Room for the second straight summer by making the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship final table. While it did not have quite the pop of the 2010 WSOP version, it still had some big time grinders holding their breath.
Phil Hellmuth once again came close this year to collecting that illusive 12th bracelet when he final tabled the $10,000 Stud/8 Championship, another second place finish is not how the “Poker Brat” wants to close these tournaments out.
Popular French pro Fabrice Soulier finally broke through to win his first WSOP bracelet along with Matt Jarvis and Ben “benba” Lamb. Jason Mercier had perhaps the loudest rail of the week as he captured his second WSOP bracelet in the $5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em 6-Handed tournament. This week’s winner listed below as well as the upcoming schedule.
Event #32 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em – Kirk Caldwell (Canada) – $668,276
Event #33 – $10,000 7-Card Stud Hi-Low Championship – Eric Rodawig (U.S.) – $442,183
Event #34 – $1,000 No Limit Hold’em – Mark Schmid (U.S.) – $488,283
Event #35 – $5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em 6-Handed – Jason Mercier (U.S.) – $619,575
Event #36 – $2,500 No Limit Hold’em – Mikhail Lakhitov (Russia) – $749,610
Event #37 – $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship – Fabrice Soulier (France) – $609,130
Event #38 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em – Arkadiy Tsinis (U.S.) – $540,136
Event #39 – $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha – $310,225
Event #40 – $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed – Matt Jarvis (Canada) – $808,538
Event #41 – $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout – Justin Pechie (U.S.) – $167,060
Event #42 – $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship – Ben “benba” Lamb (U.S) – $814,436
Day 28, June 27th at 12:00 – $10,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Championship
Day 28, June 27th at 17:00 – $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low
Day 29, June 28th at 12:00 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em
Day 29, June 28th at 17:00 – $2,500 Deuce-to-Seven Trip Draw (Limit)
Day 30, June 29th at 12:00 – $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Triple Chance
Day 31, June 30th at 12:00 – $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha/8
Day 31, June 30th at 17:00 – $2,500 Mixed Hold’em (Limit/No Limit)
Day 32, July 1st at 12:00 – $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em Championship
Day 33, July 2nd at 12:00 – $1,000 No Limit Hold’em (2 starting days)
Day 33, July 2nd at 17:00 – $50,000 The Poker Player’s Championship
Day 36, July 5th at 12:00 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em
Day 36, July 5th at 17:00 – $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha/8
Day 38, July 7th at 12:00 – $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship (Main Event)
With just a handful of tournaments remaining, I’m still feeling pretty well about my picks in the “Players to Watch” post although this was the first week where none picked up a bracelet. Phil Hellmuth had second runner up finish of the summer. Tom “durrrr” Dwan sent excitement through the Amazon Room with his first final table of the summer. Three of my players managed a decent cash in the $5,000 NLHE 6-handed.
Through 40 events they have pulled over $2,125,000 in prize money, 3 bracelets, 8 final tables, and 28 total cashes. A respectable summer no matter I picked mostly chalk. The total WSOP prizepool to this point is just around $90,000,000 (depending on what point in time I hit the publish button).
Andy Frankenberger – $599,153 (1 final table, 1 bracelet)
Phil Hellmuth – $517,410 (2 final tables)
John Juanda – $410,067 (1 final table, 1 bracelet)
Tom Dwan – $225,435 (1 final table)
Eugene Katchalov – $179,642 – (2 final tables, 1 bracelet)
Tim “Tmay420″ West – $60,087
Erik Seidel – $52,293
Jonathan Duhamel – $40,873
Josh Brikis – $38,421 (1 final table)
Daniel Negreanu – $29,940
Vanessa Selbst – $23,519
Allen Cunningham – $8,191
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.
Soi Nguyen and Gerasimos Deres play in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Event
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, Jason Mercier, Matt Jarvis, Phil Hellmuth, Tom Dwan
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Matt Jarvis heads up at the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Final table
(Photo credit: WSOP.com)
Today is sure to be filled with insanity and a few opportunities for great things. Hours before the only tournament of the day, there have been reports of 2,000 players already registered for the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament. Players will completely fill the Amazon and Pavilion Rooms as well as additional table set up near the casino. Play has already been pushed back for the restarts and who knows what will happen to the daily deepstacks.
Either way the hallways and rooms will be packed, action will be furious, and the field will come close to busting 5 players per minute (robot Kevmath took the over).
Three interesting developments in the restarts today. Full Tilt’s 2010 November Niner Matt Jarvis will return for a bonus Day 4 when play was halted at the hard stop of his No Limit Hold’em 6-handed final table while heads up. Jarvis will return with a significant chip lead looking to pick up his first WSOP bracelet.
The other two tournaments I will be watching involve Sam Stein and Eugene Katchalov. Both are deep in their tournaments, including Katchalov’s Shootout final table, looking to be the first to capture two bracelets this summer. There has been a repeat winner every year at the WSOP since 2000 and it’s getting late in the game to find one this year.
In contrast to the speedy elimination of players in the low limit NLHE tournaments, the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha returns for Day 3 without having yet made the money. 38 players remain while only 36 will be paid and they are scheduled to play down to the winner. It’s not a long shot to say this one will hit the 10-level hard stop.
All told, between the massive $1,000 NLHE field and the final tables, it should be a great day at the Rio.
Event #40: $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed
1 – Matt Jarvis – 8,645,000
2 – Justin Filtz – 2,345,000
Event #41: $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout Final Table
1 – Ari Engel – 270,000
2 – Adam Tyburski – 270,000
3 – Dom Denotaristefani – 270,000
4 – Mathieu Jacqmin – 270,000
5 – Eugene Katchalov – 270,000
6 – Jordan Rich – 270,000
7 – Stephen Bass – 270,000
8 – Christoph Kwon – 270,000
9 – Justin Pechie – 270,000
10 – Dale Eberle – 270,000
Event #42: $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha
1 – Ben “benba” Lamb – 809,000
2 – Florian Langmann – 734,000
3 – Sami Kelopuro – 728,000
4 – Jared Bleznick – 715,000
5 – Sam Stein – 646,000
6 – Aaron Schaff – 561,000
7 – Willl “The Thrill” Failla – 528,000
8 – Tristan Clemencon – 433,000
9 – Benjamin Kaupp – 417,000
10 – Matt Glantz – 400,000
Other Notables: Mike “Timex” McDonald (397,000), Felipe “Mojave” Ramos (253,000), Max Pescatori (201,000), Joao Barbosa (175,500), Abe Mosseri (170,000), Alex Kravchenko (152,000)
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.
Tom “durrrr” Dwan staring down Mike “Timex” McDonald in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, Matt Jarvis, Mike "Timex" McDonald, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Tom “durrrr” Dwan at the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. final table
Photo credit: WhoJedi
One of last year’s most electrifying final tables happened to be a small $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament because it featured Tom “durrrr” Dwan going for a bracelet after laying several bets which would have likely broke a few big names. He was unable to pull off the the feat last year but once again found himself in the middle of a circus, this time sitting in the ESPN Mothership.
23 players returned yesterday for the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship and Dwan was not among the leaders. In fact he wasn’t a real threat until the field closed in on it’s final table when he surged ahead and found himself with the chip lead at another WSOP final table. There were no soft spots as the spectacular seats began to fill. Max Pescatori, Michael Binger, Shawn Buchanan, Daniel Ospina, and Fabrice Soulier all stood in the way of prop betting history.
In the end he ran into a problem all levels of bankrolls can appreciate, Razz hands. After a series of unfortunate hands, it was Razz which would be his quick fall from grace to the rail in 5th place for over $134,000. There were sighs of relief from big gamblers around the Rio.
For a great look at the atmosphere surrounding the two final tables last night, check out our friend Dr. Pauly’s writeup of Day 24.
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As it’s become all too common this summer with the “hard stop” rule, the one which states in no squishy wording that play will stop after 10 levels of play no matter, quite a few tournaments have halted final table action without declaring a champion. Last night it happened twice. And it’s quickly becoming unpopular with players, media, friends, and family.
The most ridiculous would be the stoppage of the H.O.R.S.E. Championship where Fabrice Soulier is heads up versus Shawn Buchanan. Soulier is sporting a massive chip lead with Buchanan returning to a stack containing just 3 big bets. Perhaps it will give the loud French fans time to rebuild their voices for the continuation.
1 – Fabrice Soulier – 6,290,000
2 – Shawn Buchanan – 910,000
The other final table pause involved the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament lead by Brit Tom Middleton but a close battle with the remaining four. Pro player Eddy Sabat is still in contention when they return and I suspect this rowdy rail will have sport a proper hangover.
1 – Tom Middleton – 4,030,000
2 – Mikhail Lakhitov – 2,705,000
3 – Hassan Babajane – 2,365,000
4 – Eddy Sabat – 2,030,000
5 – Thomas Miller- 1,885,999
With all the being said, in theory we should be crowning four new champions today as the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em and $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha tournament are also supposed to play to a winner but both return with over 20 players in the field. Full Tilt pros Scott Clements and Melanie Weisner are both deep in their respective events and look to capture the title.
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, durrrr, Melanie Weisner, Scott Clements, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It was a great first week of the WSOP with bigger fields and prizepools, exciting final tables, a little screaming, and some top players picking up bracelets. While the atmosphere is still a little pensive throughout the Rio, that hasn’t stopped the players from putting their money down at the window for their shot at glory.
Jake Cody was the first open title winner at an extremely rowdy final match in the Heads Up Championship that will be fun to watch (or listen to) when it’s broadcast by ESPN. Eugene Katchalov continued his hot streak with his first WSOP bracelet while also stopping Full Tilt’s Alessio Isaia on his own heater. East coast, and long suffering, grinder Allen Bari won his first WSOP title after several big scored outside the series, defeating fan favorite Maria Ho (pictured below) heads up at the end.
7 bracelets, 3 countries, and plenty of dreams made over the first week of the WSOP.
Event #1 – $500 Casino Employees – Sean Drank (U.S.) – $82,292
Event #2 – $25,000 Heads Up Championship – Jake Cody (England) – $525,980
Event #3 – $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 – Francesco Barbaro (U.S.) – $262,283
Event #4 – $5,000 No Limit Hold’em – Allen Bari (U.S.) – $874,116
Event #5 – $1,500 Seven Card Stud – Eugene Katchalaov (Ukraine) – $122,909
Event #6 – $1,500 Limit Hold’em – Harrison Wilder (U.S.) – $205,065
Event #7 – $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship – Amir Lehavot (U.S.)- $573,456
Before the series wrote about the players to watch this summer and so far my picks are looking pretty good including an flat out bracelet from Ukranian Eugene Katchalov. So far they have cashed in all but two of the open tournaments and pulled more than $250,000 from the prizepool. Josh Brikis will begin the day with a big score after making the 2-7 No Limit final table.
Eugene Katcholov – $122,909 (1 final table, 1 WSOP bracelet)
Tom Dwan – $67,436
Tim “Tmay420″ West – $22,563
Allen Cunningham – $8,191
Erik Seidel – $6,868
The second week of the 2011 World Series of Poker brings a bigger slate of games and a little something for everyone. 12 new tournaments with three $10,000 Championships (Limit Omaha/8, 2-7 No Limit Draw, Seven Card Stud), shorthanded, shootouts, and another $1k massive field. There will be even more long nights and extended tournaments. You can find the Week 2 schedule below.
Day 7, June 6th at 12:00 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 6-handed
Day 7, June 6th at 17:00 – $10,000 Omaha/8 Championship
Day 8, June 7th at 12:00 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Triple Change
Day 9, June 8th at 12:00 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout
Day 9, June 8th at 17:00 – $3,000 Limit HOld’em
Day 10, June 9th at 12:00 – $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em
Day 10, June 9th at 17:00 – $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball (No Limit)
Day 11, June 10th at 12:00 – $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.
Day 12, June 11th at 12:00 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em
Day 12, June 11th at 17:00 – $2,500 Limit Hold’em 6-handed
Day 13, June 12th at 12:00 – $1,000 No Limit Hold’em
Day 13, June 12th at 17:00 – $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship
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, Alessio Isaia, Allen Cunningham, Bloggers on the Rail, Maria Ho, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
We are inching ever closer to crowning the first WSOP bracelet winner of the summer in the $25,000 Heads Up Championship. 32 players returned yesterday needing to win one more match to make the money and advance closer to a title. Gus Hansen entered the room late, but with a flourish. The Dane cruised into the Amazon Room with his shirt completely unzipped as he sat for his match with Daniel Alaei. If this had been Patrik Antonius we might have seen some of the female railbirds pass out, as it was he just zipped up and took care of Alaei to move on.
Hansen also provided the match of the tournament in the round of 16 when he took on Team Full Tilt member Tom “durrrr” Dwan. While the others moved along quickly, Dwan and Hansen took turns taking huge chunks out of the other until the blinds forced Hansen to shove his severe short stack in the middle several straight times. He pulled off every showdown and eventually eliminated Dwan in the final match of the night.
They will play just one match today and determine the final four. The next round kicks off at 3pm PT in the Amazon Room.
Matt Marafioto vs Gus Hansen
Jake Cody vs Anthony Guetti
David Paredes vs Yevgeniy Timoshenko
Nikolay Evdakov vs Eric Froehlich
Yesterday was also the first day for the $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 tournament which was an interesting indicator of the rest of the summer. There was plenty of speculation ahead of the WSOP about field sizes and they blew the doors off yesterday. According the WSOP staff, the 925 entrants in Event #3 made it the biggest LO8 tournament ever run. A fine start to the summer.
Defending champion Michael Chow will not go back-to-back as he was eliminated late on Day 1. 201 players remain with the top 90 getting paid. Below are the top 10 and notable stacks to kick off Day 2 at 2:30pm with blinds at 500/1,000 (1,000/2,000 limits).
1 – Guillaume Rivet – 71,200
2 – Andy Seth – 61,700
3 – Gary Bolden – 60,700
4 – Richard Monroe – 59,000
5 – Cary Falk – 59,800
6 – James Dempsey – 59,800
7 – Francesco Barbaro – 58,800
8 – Sorel Mizzi – 56,400
9 – Ted Woolridge – 55,300
10 – Kostas Kalathakis – 50,600
Other Notables: Jimmy Fricke (47,600), Barry Greenstein (46,900), Matt Waxman (39,900), Bryan Micon (38,400), Humberto Brenes (36,100), Jean-Robert Bellande (34,700), John D’Agostino (34,400), TJ Cloutier (34,300), Scott Clements (30,600), Thayer Rasmussen (28,500), Josh Arieh (28,400)
The glamour part of the day involves the made-for-TV Grudge Matches playing out on the fancy new ESPN feature table. They will replay three classic Heads Up matches from previous Main Events in front of the cameras. Matches filmed today will be Chris Moneymaker vs Sammy Farha (2003), Johnny Chan vs Phil Hellmuth (1989) then the Rounders favorite and fan choice of the classic Johnny Chan vs Erik Seidel from the 1988 Main Event final table.
Two other new events also run today with the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em off at noon and the field of rocks in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud at 5pm. Both are showing an early trend at record sizes.
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, Eric Froehlich, Erik Seidel, Gus Hansen, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The 2011 World Series of Poker is upon us. The first “open” event will begin in a few hours with the $25,000 Heads Up World Championship and we will officially be underway in the Rio. It’s become a custom around these parts to begin the WSOP by putting together a list of players to watch. Some come into the summer riding a heater, others just seem to be due a big series, and the others are just too big to ignore.
There are plenty of names which could be included on the list but no one wants to read a 3,000 word post. I didn’t include (but well worthy) were current Bluff Player of the Year leader Galen Hall, 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela, WPT World Championship winner Scott Seiver, or WSOP legend Doyle Brunson.
Below are some of the players I think are worth your attention this summer. The Big Guns, Honorable Mentions, and Sleepers.
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Eugene Katchalov, John Juanda, Jonathan Duhamel, jungleman12, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Vanessa Selbst, Vivek Rajkumar, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
We’re just a few short days away from the start of the 2011 World Series of Poker and things are beginning to buzz. Plans are being solidified, airfare booked, and rolls wired to the Rio cage. While the world winds itself up for the coming series, we thought it would be nice to head back to last year for a few highlights.
Last week I put together a list of some of the best pictures of the summer and today I tried to come up with my 5 favorite stories from last year. It was not an easy task as I didn’t add the much anticipated first WSOP for Annette Obrestad, the incredible class shown by Brandon Adams getting berated on the way to a second place finish, or the incredible run of 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela.
While they may come off as a strictly Full Tilt Poker list, as a long time poker observer, these were the stories I consider the most memorable.
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, Michael Mizrachi, November Nine, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It doesn’t take much to remind us that our game of poker is just a tiny niche in the big world. On March 11th we received another wake up call when an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami struck the east coast of Japan. While it will take years to determine the long term effects on the country, many forms of fund raising began almost immediately. Full Tilt Poker joined the effort shortly after the disaster and has been running many “Aid For Japan” tournaments throughout the week.
Tom Dwan is throwing his weight behind the efforts by hosting a $10+$10 Multi-entry tournament this Sunday along with a Pro Chat starting at 16:00ET which could potentionally raise $200,000 in one shot. $10 from every entry will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross and each dollar will be matched by Full Tilt.
In addition to the tournament, Dwan will be playing the final heads-up matches in the Challenge durrrr promotion and Full Tilt is donating $10,000 for each of his victories.
All tournament information can be found on the “Aid For Japan” page as well as other ways to donate.
Tags: Aid For Japan, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, Tom Dwan
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Full Tilt Poker is always looking at ways to expand the poker experience and yesterday announced a new set of events designed to bring together some of the best poker players in the world. The Onyx Cup Series is six high roller tournaments around the world with buy-ins ranging from $100k to $300k, creating fields where world renowned players can battle against each other for an estimated prizepool of $30,000,000.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Chris Ferguson, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, Onyx Cup Series, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Fans of the big online poker games were once again drawn to the tables for the durrrr Challenge 2 when Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates sent out a short twitter message saying they were starting up a new session. Before the players could even kick things off the rail was deep with fanboys, media, and the requisite beggars. After six hours of play and nearly 3,000 hands, Cates would put add a huge amount of money to his lead. Dwan’s deficit was hovering around the $100,000 mark for most of the session but lost some critical hands late to put himself another $319,000 in the hole.
There were a few fireworks early as the “small” stacks of $40,000 each were run up to the point where each was fairly deep on all four tables and they settled into the grind. Cates was up early and would extend upwards to a $250,000 lead but Dwan would punch back a few times to pull almost even at one point. Dwan made several obvious adjustments to his game but it seemed to prevent the inevitable. More than 1/3 of the challenge is complete (17,108 of 50,000 hands) and Cates lead has been extended his lead to $820,000 making a tough hill to climb for Dwan.
Table 13 was the hotspot throughout the session. 14 hands topped the $100,000 mark and half of those occurred on Table 13 including the biggest pot of the night. Table 11 was the biggest winner for Cates with him having in excess of $300,000 for the latter parts of the session and alone accounted for $227,000 of his profit on the evening. The session started at 21:30ET and six hours later the damage was done.
Table 10: 514 hands, Cates $79,606
Table 11: 740 hands, Cates $227,000
Table 12: 693 hands, Dwan $58,412
Table 13: 699 hands, Cates $147,236
Table 14: 265 hands, Dwan $77,799
You can find all the relevant facts, replays, and stats on the durrrr Challenge 2 stats page. Here are few of the major hands during the latest session (click the images to enlarge).
5. The fifth biggest pot of the session will be tough to decipher since we don’t know exactly what durrrr was holding but we can always speculate. Cates opened the action with a min-raise on the button and was repopped by Dwan. Cates flat called the 3-bet preflop to see the board run out 4d 3s 2h prompting a $3,200 bet by Dwan into the $4,800 pot. Cates raised to $8,800 was called and Dwan then checked the Ks on the turn. With the pot sitting at $22,400, Cates bet out $17,200 and got another call from Dwan leaving Cates with just $37,294 behind. Those chips went into the middle when Dwan checked the Ace of diamonds on the river.
We won’t know what Dwan was holding but he called the $37,294 (into $94,094) to see Cates show 44 for the flop set and $131,000.
4. The fourth biggest hand stuck to the script preflop. Cates min-raised on the button and saw a flop after Dwan called. 7c 2s 4s flop brought out a few fireworks as Dwan check raised to $4,400 only to see Cates fire another bullet up to $9,200 which was just called. The 6d on the turn made for an interesting looking board that Dwan just check/called Cates $16,800 bet, again leaving a player with less than the pot in front. The 5h prompted Dwan to shove them in with a call from Cates.
Dwan’s TPCK (top pair, crap kicker) added a gutterball on the turn which got there on the river. We have no idea if he was good the entire way but he was able to drag a healthy pot over $144,000.
3. That will be the last huge hand posted where we must theorize on the losing hand, the third biggest hand involves the favored “run it twice” option. Next verse is same as the first as Cates min-raises his button to have Dwan repop from his big blind. This time Cates opts to put in another raise and they created a $11,200 pot preflop, the perfect recipe monster potten. The K 9 2 all heart flop only brought out a mellow $5,400 check/call between the two but the Tc on the turn lit the fuse. A puny $22,000 pot ballooned when Dwan check-raised his entire $67,000 stack.
Cates easily called with his flopped flush leaving Dwan drawing awfully thin to just 4 outs. Even running it twice couldn’t produce the boat suckout for Dwan (rigged!) and Cates added another $156,000 to his total.
2. In order to produce these huge heads up pots the players need to have a metric ton in front and both be relatively close (try explaining that concept to a forum monkey). The second biggest hand started with Cates sitting on just over $100,000 and Dwan on $90,000. My words sound repetitive when I write that Cates began the hand with a min-raise on the button, a raise buy Dwan in the big blind, but just a flat call this time by the “jungleman12″. It was a pretty interesting 8h Qc 7c flop which saw Dwan lead out $3,200. That brought a $8,800 raise from Cates, slightly larger than the pot, and was just called by Dwan. The Kh on the turn made for a straight and flush happy board, Dwan check-called an $18,400 bet from Cates to see the river bring the 3h.
With Dwan holding just a few dollars more than the pot, he opted to check the river and Cates fired his last bullet. It turned out to be a self-inflicted wound as Dwan went running hearts (with a turned gutshot) to beat the Cates flopped 8′s up. “durrrr” pulled back over $180,000 to narrow the numbers on the session.
5. Dwan seemed to spend the entire session grinding his way back into the match only to get popped for another big hand. At one point he had scratched himself within a few thousand of even but never held on. Below is the biggest hand of the session and occurred near the end of the session. Only another 100 hands would be played after this and it accounted for the large majority of Cates final numbers.
Flipping the script, Dwan began with the button and opted for his standard pot size open only to get 3-bet by Cates to $4,800. After Dwan called his raise, they saw a flop which looked a bit like the one above. Qc 8h 6h caused Cates to fire out a bet just a little over half the pot before their friend the King of Hearts appeared on the turn. Dwan once again just flat called a less-than-pot sized bet from Cates and only $54,000 up for grabs. Cates bet $43,600 when the 3d hit the river leaving the same amount behind. Dwan came over the top and we suddenly had ourselves a $216,000 pot.
Dwan may have thought his hand was good on the turn but was instead drawing to one tiny straight flush out on the river. Cates would go on to add nearly $100,000 onto this stack after this hand and pretty much ended any chance of Dwan making up ground this session.
Some other miscellaneous crazy hands:
Unimproved aces hold up at showdown?
Cates shows how to hit your full house outs, twice
Coin flipping for $115,000 and winning different ways
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, durrrr Challenge, jungleman12, Tom Dwan
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