They’re heading into Day 2 of the second event of the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe and a Tilter is leading the way as they head towards the money.  Only 158 players put down the £2,500 for the mixed Pot Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha tournament but they only dropped down to 24 players, with 18 of those making the money.  Eric Cajelais will bring his intimidation back to play down to a winner.  Cajelias is sitting with 145,000, also alive are Team Full Tilt are Howard Lederer and Vitaly Lunkin.  Men Nguyen, Allie Prescott, and Hoyt Corkins are also in contention.

Here at The Borgata I am spending my time watching a bunch of grinder fight their way through to make the $925,000 payday along with the televised WPT final table. Getting down close the bubble we had two big Full Tilt pros battling it out against each other and entertaining the rail in the process. Bill Gazes joined the table with Gavin Smith and local poker legend “Joey the B” Brooks right up against the rail and things were entertaining. Until just before the dinner break. Smith and Gazes were both sitting with decent size stack when Smith 3-bet the preflop raise of Gazes. Push, call, and all the chips were in the middle with Smith holding AA and Gazes a lowly little pair of 6’s. No sweating involved as a 6 was waiting in the door.

Day 3 of the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship where they’ll make the money and play down to 27. Still kicking around in the event we have Bill Gazes, Steve Brecher, Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah, Justin “TooRoothlus” Levy (brother of “Roothlus), Kathy Liebert, Matt Brady, Michael Binger, Chris Reslock, and Lee Childs.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Tilt on Tilt Violence

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Poker legend Scotty Nguyen goes into the day with a chip lead. He is looking for his 7th WPT television table and second WPT victory.

While no big name Full Tilt pros will be sitting at the final table, that doesn’t mean we don’t have a few video interviews / snippets left for your enjoyment. After the jump you can see Mike Matusow all fired up and Andy Bloch going through nailing a straight flush.

After the jump.

Videos courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Mike Matusow and Andy Bloch video interviews

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Jeff Madsen in the running of the 2009 WPT World Championship
Photo credit: PokerNews.com

There were plenty of chances to set a Full Tilt heavy table at the 2009 WPT World Championship but players were falling at a regular pace.  It took a little while to reach the money bubble and then they blew right past it without going hand-for-hand.  That happens when two people go out in the same hand.

Mike Matusow and Steve Brecher dropped before making the money.  Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Barny Boatman, and David Singer cashed in the Championship but were unable to make it to Day 5.  Four players are still alive with a shot at the first place prize over $2.1 Million.  Jennifer Harman, David Grey, Ross Boatman and Jeff Madsen continue to carry the flag for Full Tilt Poker.  Also alive are Scotty Nguyen, Shannon Shorr and Elky Grospellier.

They’ll play down to the final 6 for the TV table for later broadcast.

Jeff Madsen sat down twice with Amanda Leatherman and you can find the video interviews after the jump. You may have heard of his rapping abilities, now you can get a little taste.

Videos courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com

Post from: Poker From The Rail

WPT World Championship update – Jeff Madsen video interviews

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1. Mike Matusow and Andy Bloch video interviews
2. 2009 WPT World Championship update
3. Erica Schoenberg and Kristy Gazes video interviews

With the 2009 WPT World Championship going on at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, queen of the WPT Amanda Leatherman sits down with the top players during breaks for short, informal video interviews. I’ll be posting some of them over the next few days so you can get some inside info on your favorite players. They have a bunch from the Full Tilt pros and I’ll start with two of my favorites.

After the jump you can find interviews with Erica Schoenberg talking about beer pong and Kristy Gazes discussing many things.

Enjoy.

Videos courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Erica Schoenberg and Kristy Gazes video interviews

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Phil Ivey and David Singer head into Day3 of the 2009 WPT World Championship

The $25,000 buyin WPT World Championship is taking place this week at the Bellagio in Las Vegas with the kind of field you would expect for a premier event. The tournament started with some serious deepstacks that gave plenty of play in the early stages. Each player started with 1000 big blinds and a very slow structure.

This meant they played 2 full days (3 if you include Day 1a and 1b) and just over half the original 377 players were eliminated. Then they hit Day 3 and the field dropped an even 100 players, going from 162 to 62. Only 12 players remaining until the bubble bursts and players start making a profit on their buyin.

There are some big time Full Tilt pros still in contention and dreams of an all-FTP final table are floating around. Although I’m sure the pros hope not, they would prefer a softer table. Leading the way for Team Full Tilt are Phil Ivey and David Singer followed by Chris Ferguson, Mike Matusow and Jennifer Harman, as well as the Brothers Boatman. Barny Boatman and Ross Boatman.

The players return to the tables today looking to move up the leaderboard to position themselves to win the first place prize over $2 Million. Full chip counts for the remaining 62 after the jump.

Chip count courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com.  Click here to follow the 2009 WPT World Championship live.

1. Steve Billirakis 1,722,000
2. Matthew Hyman 1,663,000
3. Mark Seif 1,315,000
4. Nenad Medic 1,306,000
5. David Singer 1,116,000
6. Blake Cahail 1,059,000
7. Phil Ivey 1,036,000
8. Nick Binger 1,036,000
9. Dave Baker 952,000
10. Freddy Deeb 932,000
11. Jennifer Harman 828,000
12. Michael DeMichele 789,000
13. Eugene Katchalov 764,000
14. Javed Abrahams 760,000
15. Justin Young 732,000
16. Christian Harder 728,000
17. Jeff Madsen 712,000
18. Eric Liu 688,000
19. Andrew Lichtenberger 664,000
20. Ulises Roman 622,000
21. Andy Miller 604,000
22. Chris Bell 604,000
23. Scotty Nguyen 557,000
24. Marco Johnson 553,000
25.Barny Boatman 534,000
26. Chad Batista 515,000
27. Jonathan Aguiar 489,000
28. Philip Gurian 475,000
29. Yevgeniy Timoshenko 464,000
30. Ross Boatman 456,000
31. John Martin 418,000
32. David Grey 406,000
33. Markus Gonsalves 405,000
34. Steve Sung 392,000
35. Ran Azor 388,000
36. Elky Grospellier 378,000
37. Cody Slaubaugh 377,000
38. Brian Rast 365,000
39. Chris Ferguson 338,000
40. Hyon Kim 338,000
41. Sinan Yoyen 323,000
42. Steve Brecher 318,000
43. Boris Becker 306,000
44. Will Failla 305,000
45. Liv Boeree 299,000
46. Naseem Salem 296,000
47. Kathy Liebert 290,000
48. Bruno Fitoussi 286,000
49. Mike Matusow 272,000
50. David Benyamine 268,000
51. Jimmy Fricke 259,000
52. Dutch Boyd 253,000
53. Evan McNiff 234,000
54. Matthew Glantz 214,000
55. Quinn Do 211,000
56. Freddy Bonyadi 208,000
57. Ron Levi 204,000
58. Jimmy Tran 177,000
59. Owen Crowe 177,000
60. Steven Fung 135,000
61. Shannon Shorr 120,000
62. Sammy Farha 90,000

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 WPT World Championship update

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David Pham at Foxwoods World Poker Finals
Photo credit: WorldPokerTour.com

Last week was a good one for David Pham.  On November 11th he finished fourth in Foxwoods World Poker Finals for $240,344 then turned around and finished third the very next day in FTOPS X Event #16 for near $112,000.  By any measure, that is one fine week.

The rest of Team Full Tilt seemed to dominate the event even without collecting the win.  Get the rest of the numbers after the jump.

412 players paid $10,000 to play in Foxwoods World Poker Finals creating a $3,876,508 prizepool. Jonathan Little won the event for $1,120,310, this is his fourth final table and second WPT win. This was the seventh WPT final table for David Pham and fifth for Mike Matusow. Of the 412 players, 50 made the money and 7 of them play under the Full Tilt flag.

4th – David Pham – $240,344
6th – Mike Matusow – $124,048
14th – Bill Gazes – $32,950
21st – Phil Ivey – $27,135
22nd – Gavin Smith – $27,135
41st – Svetlana Gromenkova – $21,320
43rd – Chris Ferguson – $21,320

Mike Matusow at Foxwoods World Poker Finals
Photo credit: WorldPokerTour.com

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Full Tilt at Foxwoods World Poker Finals

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With just over a month until the first event of the 2008 WSOP, the game’s biggest names are already gathering in Vegas. For some, it’s a chance to return home and rest up before the six-week poker orgy that is the 54-event series. For others, it’s a chance to sharpen up their games and build their bankrolls in preparation for the upcoming madness. And, for just about everyone, it’s a chance to play the World Poker Tour’s $25K World Championship at the Bellagio.

545 players started the event, and 421 of them will return for the start of Day 2 today. Four Full Tilt Poker pros are currently camped near the top of the leaderboard, with Kenny Tran and Robert Mizrachi holding down third and fourth places, and Jordan Morgan and David Benyamine sitting in sixth and seventh.

Team Full Tilter Erik Seidel, who is currently leading the Player of the Year points race, will start the day in 85^th position while Phil Ivey is lurking in 107^th spot. Ivey needs to finish this event in fourth place or better to claim the Player of the Year title. Two other notable Team Full Tilter’s in today’s field are Howard “the Professor” Lederer and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, who are each playing in their first WPT event since 2006.

Chris, Howard, Phil Gordon, Andy Bloch and Annie Duke have all boycotted WPT events since filing suit against the tour over issues related to the player release form used by the WPT. Tour officials announced a settlement of the lawsuit Saturday and Chris and Howard immediately celebrated by buying their way into the Bellagio event.

There are few things likely to grab a railbird’s attention than someone sitting with a seven-figure bankroll at an online table. Especially when that player is a red pro playing $1K/$2K Limit Hold ‘em.

So, it’s no surprise that Markus Golser was the fan favorite last week when he re-bought into a match with Hoss_TBF for a cool $1 million. Golser’s massive re-buy followed what many of us would likely classify as a horrendous run, dropping 10 consecutive $20K buy-ins to Hoff. That’s $200K, in case you lost count.

Did the big stack pay off for the Austrian pro? Not so much – he still ended the session down more than $200,000, but if nothing else, he gave the rail something to chatter about for awhile.

Sometimes you get dogged by the competition and other times, you get to do the dogging. But as long as you’re playing poker for a good cause, Jen Harman doesn’t care.

Last weekend, 274 of Jen’s friends turned out at the Venetian to play poker and support her second-annual Nevada SPCA Fundraiser. Players like Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey and Gavin Smith all turned out to support Jen’s pet project and raise money for the state’s no-kill shelters. If that wasn’t enough, Jen helped raise additional funds for her furry friends by holding a charity auction where players and fans could bid on tons of cool poker and sports memorabilia, including one lucky man who bought Doyle Brunson’s trademark Stetson right off Texas Dolly’s head.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

The Week at FTP: WPT Action

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