As ESPN begins broadcasting the 2009 World Series of Poker, I will be going through my post from then as well as my notes to bring you my thoughts before/during/after the episode.  You can find the entire 2009 WSOP ESPN Broadcast schedule here. Comments welcome.

Last night brought us the first ESPN broadcast of the 2009 World Series of Poker with the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship. It was the first “open” event of the WSOP and eased everyone into the series. 201 players player bought in creating the largest non-Main Event prizepool in history. It was one of the toughest fields you will ever see in a poker tournament.

I was interested to see what portions of the event ESPN would put on the air and was mildly surprised that none of the early action was shown other than cutaway shots. There was plenty of action before the final table which would have made for some great TV. I was specifically interested to see if they would show the bustout of Mike Matusow. He had a rough day between cards and coolers then busted out of the $40k and Omaha/8 tournaments within minutes.

Full Tilt pro Andy Black started his series well with a 19th place finished and Tony G was the final table bubble boy. Full Tilt was represented at the final table by Ted Forrest and eventual winner Vitaly Lunkin. Watching the replay last night brought up something I’ve seen several times over the last few years and cannot explain.

Why do others question the play of 5-time bracelet winner Ted Forrest? Noah “McLovin” Schwartz did just that on Forrest’s final hand of the table. Since I began covering live tournaments, many times I’ve seen players at the table with Forrest question and critique moves by the legend. Every where from the Borgata to the Rio I’ve seen this occur and can only surmise that he is mixing up his play enough to confuse others at the table.

Vitaly Lunkin was a quiet force at the final table, rarely going showing down his cards until play was 4 or 5-handed.  Catching big pocket pairs heads up certainly didn’t hurt his chances.  This was the first Full Tilt bracelet in the first open event of the series.

Next on the broadcast schedule is the World Series of Poker Champions Invitational.  This freeroll brought together Main Event winners from past to battle for the inaugural Binion’s Cup and a sweet old red Corvette Stingray.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – $40,000 Championship Broadcast

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Vitaly Lunkin and Erik Seidel both made the $50k HORSE final table but came up short

It’s all over but the big one.  There will be no more preliminary events to witness, no more multiple tournaments across several rooms.  Today the Amazon Room takes a break to prepare for the big daddy Main Event.  There are a few mega-satellites going on throughout the room and we’ll get to watch the big charity Ante Up for Africa event.  A low stress day before the halls of the Rio are rammed full of grinders looking for the biggest prize in poker.

Today we will award the final preliminary event bracelet in the $5,000 6-max No Limit Hold’em tournament with Full Tilt pros Peter “Nordberg” Feldman and Matt Hawrilenko near the top of the board for a bracelet.  They start the day with 16 players remaining and playing down to the winner.

It’s more than 90 minutes before kicking off the celeb-heavy Ante Up for Africa tournament and fans have already begun loading up on the rail.  Plenty of chances for them to get an up close view of their favorite poker player, movie star, rock star.  Anyone can drop $5,000 and get into the event, one of the few being broadcast by ESPN this year.  Media access is severely restricted for this tournament so I’ll give it a cursory glance.

In news from the $50,000 HORSE World Championship, Full Tilt walked in with 4 of the remaining 8 seats but unable to bring home another bracelet and that big fancy trophy.  It turned out to be one of the longest final tables in World Series of Poker history coming in at just under 19 hours.  The only other final table which ran longer was the 2009 World Series of Poker-Europe Main Event won by John Juanda in 19 hours 9 minutes.  Vitaly Lunkin went the furthest for Team Full Tilt with a 4th place finish.  Lunkin final tabled the two biggest buyins of the year after winning the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em Anniversary tournament.

For players coming into town for their shot at the Main Event, they are running Mega-satellites between now and July 5th at 10am and 4pm with a $550 buyin.  They are giving away nearly 10 seats per satellite and the play appears to mighty soft in relation to the prize.

Everyone is taking a little break today, gathering themselves for the two week Main Event storm where we’ll see I huge jump in participation and attendance, the rail will be nearly impossible to navigate.  If you were thinking of making the trip out here, now is the time to get it done.

Nikolay Evdakov reflects on his Event #56 performance
Sometimes the captions write themselves

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker Day 37 – Deep Breath

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Eight players will take their seats for the final table of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Champioship today and four of those players are members of Team Full Tilt.  Carrying the flag today will be Vitaly Lunkin who starts the day second in chips followed by Huck Seed, Chau Giang, and Erik Seidel.  With 50% of the remaining players, we’re coin flipping to add an eight bracelet to the FTP count.  As expected it will be a stacked final table with 18 bracelets amongst the 8 players.

Erik Siedel – 8 wins
Huck Seed – 4 wins
Chau Giang – 3 wins
Vitaly Lunkin – 2 wins
Ville Wahlbeck – 1 win

Lunkin and Wahlbeck have a chance to add to the number of multiple bracelet winners at the 2009 World Series of Poker.  Four players have accomplished that feat this year, it could move us into uncharted waters trying to tie/pass the record of six multiple winners in 2003.

There will also be two other bracelet awarded by the end of the day.  Eric “Rizen” Lynch is the premier name remaining in the Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em Event.  Allie Prescott and Tournament Director extraordinaire Matt Savage are lining up to win some WSOP gold in the $1,500 Stud/8 tournament.

Today brings us the final “open” tournament before the Ante Up for Africa and Main Event.  The $5,000 6-max No Limit Hold’em should draw a nice crowd of grinders and pros looking at their next to last shot at WSOP glory.  Those who have not had the best series so far may turn desperate, others will be looking to add more to their 2009 WSOP earnings.

The halls of the Amazon Room have begun their final transformations.  Over the last 5 weeks things have been pretty standard.  Munchie stations, a few bar setups for adult beverages, the odd booth featuring bikini clad girls to distract the grinders.  The Main Event is right around the corner so we’re seeing more displays and hucksters.  The Rio staff has begun preparing the convention center for the World Series of Poker Life Expo.  I may be able to do an entire post just reviewing each booth.

The clock is ticking for our players this year.  Time to make moves.

Restart chip counts after the jump:

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: 8

Event #52 Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em
Buyin: $3,000
Number of Entries: 854
Net Prize Pool: $2,357,040
First Place Prize: $506,800
Total Spots Paid Out: 81
Players Remaining: 16

Event #53 Seven Card Stud/8
Buyin: $1,500
Number of Entries: 466
Net Prize Pool: $636,090
First Place Prize: $159,048
Total Spots Paid Out: 48
Players Remaining: 14

Event #54 No Limit Hold’em
Buyin: $1,500
Number of Entries: 2,818
Net Prize Pool: $3,846,570
First Place Prize: $673,276
Total Spots Paid Out: 297
Players Remaining: 376

Top 50 chip stacks:

Event #55 Deuce to Seven Draw
Buyin: $2,500
Number of Entries: 257
Net Prize Pool: $591,100
First Place Prize: $165,521
Total Spots Paid Out: 24
Players Remaining: 73

Top 50 chip stacks:

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker Day 35 – Coin Flip for the H.O.R.S.E.

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All images credited to IMDPI.

Pictures after the jump, click to enlarge.

Eli Elezra playing in the 2009 World Series of Poker Event #3 Limit Omaha/8.
He would go on to cash in 20th place.

Fellow Full Tilt blogger Michael Craig playing in Event # 4 “Stimulus Special”

2007 WSOP Main Event Champion Jerry Yang in The Champions Invitational, which was new to the 200 World Series of Poker.  The tournament featured former WSOP Main Event winners. Tom McEvoy eventually won the Binion’s Cup.

Poker legend Ted Forrest was eliminated in 9th at the final table of the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em Event #2.  An event to honor the 40th Anniversary of the World Series of Poker, the field was stacked with some of the best players in the world.

Prior to the 2009 World Series of Poker, there were thoughts that this would be the year of the Russian poker players.  Full Tilt pro Vitaly Lunkin started on the right foot by winning the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament.

The $40,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament was one of final tables to be broadcast by ESPN.  Winner Vitaly Lunkin is sitting in front of his piles of cash and giving the traditional Norm Chad post-victory interview.

Jeff Madsen ponders his action during Day 1B of the $1,000 “Stimulus Special”.
Gavin Smith in the foreground.

Amanda “Mandy B” Baker playing on Day 2 of the $1,000 “Stimulus Special”.  She would go on a great run but finish in 33rd.  $22,000 return on her $1,000 investment.

Allen Cunningham ponders the action during the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament

Erick Lindgren starts Day 2 of the World Championship Seven Card Stud

Erica Schoenberg playing in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event #7

Between hands in the No Limit 2-7 Draw tournament, Chris Ferguson takes time to play some games on his phone

Phil Ivey plays Day 2 of the No Limit 2-7 Draw tournament.
Bracelet number 6 is just days away.

Phil Ivey eyes up bracelet number 6 during NL 2-7 Draw final table.
He would win it eventually after a 3 hour heads-up battle with John Monnette.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – The Week in Pictures

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Vitaly Lunkin wins the first bracelet for a Full Tilt Pro
Photo credit: IMPDI

The promise of a great Day 5 came to life, turning into the best day in a series that is only a week old.  We know there was a stacked final table set for the $40k 40th Anniversary tournament, a long day to play down to the Omaha/8 bracelet, plus the introduction of the “Binion’s Cup” causing a crush along the rails.

The seats around the ESPN feature table were packed with fans and partisan spectators.  The roar of the crowd told the rest when a big hand was going down.  Greg Raymer was the obvious crowd favorite but Full Tilt pro Vitaly Lunkin had his vocal section cheering the Russian on.  With the elimination of each player Lunkin continued to build his chipstack and took the lead with 5 players remaining.  Then he used it to apply near constant pressure on the others.  In the early morning hours it was finally over, and the Russian was crowded the winner in the first $40,000 40th Anniversary Tournament.

Team Full Tilt Poker has it’s first bracelet.  We’ll get to hear the Russian national anthem tomorrow afternoon during the new bracelet ceremony.

Event #3 already set a record for the number of entrants in the $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 tournament with 918 runners and by just around midnight we had another amazing story.  Thang Luu was the defending champion in this event from 2008 after finishing second in 2007.  He lead the field after Day 1 with 19 players remaining looking for the rare event repeat.  Not since Johnny Chan go back-to-back at the Main Event in ‘87-’88 had any player successfully defended their title in an open event.  Until last night.

Luu again finished on top for his second bracelet and was reported to have said “I know one thing for sure. I will play in this event every year from now on!” I’ll bet good money that he’ll do exactly that.

Monday will see the final table of the Champions Invitational that was packed full of former Main Event winners.  Where the winner will take up a Red Corvette and the Binion’s Cup.  More at the tournament as they continue.

Champions Invitation field
Photo credit: Mean Gene

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Day 5 From the Rail

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