Here’s this week’s Poker 2Nite episode discussing Isildur1, a charity poker tournament hosted by Annie Duke, Brandon Cantu getting tased and an interview with Andy Bloch. Parts 2 and 3 appear on the next page:
That’s what we wanna know … after Saturday/Sunday’s marathon 9->2 session … how long do you think the heads-up battle between Darvin Moon and Joe Cada will go?
They’re currently in Level 39, with blinds at 500k/1000k + 150k.
Moon has almost the same number of chips he started with, 58,850,000, while Cada, who started with just 13,215,000, now has all the rest — 135,950,000.
What they’re fighting for, essentially: $3.36 million in cash, and then everything else that goes with being WSOP champ.
NOTE: In our previous unscientific poll, Moon got the second-most votes … Cada fourth-most.
The record for WSOP heads-up battles is 7 hours 10 minutes, set by Chip Reese vs. Andy Bloch in 2006. Before that it was 7 hours, in the 1983 main event … where after Doyle Brunson busted out in 3rd on a semi-bluff, an unknown from Michigan, Tom McEvoy, beat Rod Peate for $580,000:
BTW, for a fun historical perspective, watch the start of the television coverage of the 1983 final table here.
We low-stakes players love the deep-stack events … but as Matt Savage pointed out this summer, and a concern that Andy Bloch has re-raised more recently, big-time pro tourneys don’t necessarily benefit in the same way from these structures.
(The basics of the beef: the blinds move too slow early, and too fast in the middle of the tournament.)
Should be extra interesting to see these issues in action tomorrow for the start of the WPT Festa al Lago $15k main event. Not only are stack sizes in relation to the blinds in play, but also — and I’m pretty sure this part is new — players will be allowed to late-register (with a totally fresh starting stack) well into Day 2!
For a better explanation, WPT Lead Tournament Reporter BJ Nemeth breaks it down a bit more. Says BJ:
There are currently 40 players registered for this WPT event, & there is only one starting day (tomorrow).
Like the December tourney, this one will let you register anytime during the first *eight* levels. [So] they’re letting players register until 5:00 pm on Day TWO.
This tourney begins with 60,000 in chips (4x stack) and blinds at 50-100. That’s 600 big blinds. (Though I still expect someone to bust in the first level or two.)
If you skip Day 1 and show up at the start of Day 2, you’ll have 75 big blinds to work with. If you wait as long as possible and begin play at the start of Level 9, you’ll have 37.5 big blinds in your stack.
Hmm, OK … we’ll have to see if this adds fuel to Andy Bloch’s fire, or satisfies those who pony up the $15k buy-in enough that complaints about overly deep stacks fail to grow any teeth. Word is that tournament-side WSOP officials will be watching closely at how it plays out.
Click below to see Bellagio’s venerable TD Jack McClelland’s blind structure for tomorrow’s big event in its entirety:
Finishing up business from Monday night before moving on…
The $1,000 NL Holdem Stimulus Special finished at 3am today with 50 players returning at 1pm to play down to a winner. The chip leader is Robert Comegys from Grand Prairie, TX with nearly 1.2m million in chips. Danny Fuhs is close behind, with notables such as Eric Mizrachi, Lee Watkinson, Dan Heimiller, and Jonathan Aguiar far down the leaderboard. More details will be available in my PokerNews recap later today. Today’s event is scheduled to be the first of over 20 WSOP final tables to be streamed online this year. The scheduled 2pm final table will be pushed back at least a few hours, depending on how fast play is today. Updates on Pokerati during the day today.
The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event finished their Day 1 with 81 players remaining, the exact amount needed to reach the money. Jason Mercier, best known for his success on the European Poker Tour, is the chip leader with 227,000 in chips, over 60,000 more than second placed Matt Humphrey. Other notables who’ve made the money include Eric Froehlich,, Dario Alioto, Josh Arieh, An Tran, Warren Karp, Shannon Shorr, Robert Mizrachi, and Kirill Gerasimov. Those players and many more return at 2pm today to play down to a final table.
The $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship ended after eight levels with 101 of its remaining 142 entrants remaining. High-stakes cash game player David Oppenheim emerged as the chip leader, with veterans “Miami John” Cernuto, Nick Frangos, Danny Robison, and Steve Zolotow helping make up the top 10. Others who’ll be looking to work their way up include Eli Elezra, Todd Brunson, Eric Drache, Erick Lindgren, Andy Bloch, Cory Zeidman and Phil Ivey. They also return at 2pm to play down to their final table.
The one event that was able to conclude Monday was the WSOP Champions Invitational as Tom McEvoy, the 1983 Main Event winner, knocked off Robert Varkonyi, the 2002 Main Event champion to win the first Binion Cup along with a 1970 red Corvette.
The preview for today’s events:
More…
First, some advice from the Poker Shrink to those in the poker media during the WSOP.
Day 1a of the $1,000 NL Holdem Stimulus Special drew a full field of entries today as the WSOP tournament staff issued a press release declaring the event a sellout at 6,000 entrants, although official numbers are slightly below the 6000 total. There have been rumors that a few spots are still available on Sunday to select individuals who wish to register. An earlier rumor that alternates were being allowed to enter the event turned out to be incorrect. The players will be returning from their dinner break shortly, with less than 1000 players remaining to play the final 2 to 4 levels today. Among the notables that have already came and went: Kevin Saul, Shannon Shorr, and PokerRoad’s Joe Sebok, Joe Stapleton and Barry Greenstein.
The 40th Annual $40,000 NL Holdem event almost has its final table in place, as they’re now 10-handed and return from their dinner break shortly. Alec Torelli leads a stacked table with 5,375,000 in chips. The remainder of the table features Greg Raymer, Tony G, Ted Forrest, Justin Bonomo, Dani Stern, Vitaly Lunkin, Isaac Haxton, Noah Schwartz and Lex Valdhuis (with his girlfriend, Evelyn Ng, sweating the action on the rail).
The size of the Stimulus Special caused a one-hour delay in the start of day 2 of the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better event. The players reached the money just before their dinner break. Notables who won’t be heading to the pay window include Phil Hellmuth, Andy Bloch, “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Scott Clements and Tony Cousineau. Defending champion in this event Thang Luu is near the top of the leaderboard, with Layne Flack, Freddy Deeb, Todd Brunson and Pat Poels all still in the fight. Special congratulations goes to former WSOP TD Matt Savage for his first WSOP cash. With about 85 players left, the goal is to play down to a final table for Sunday, but don’t be too surprised if there’s a couple of tables who’ll get to return tomorrow afternoon. Check out www.worldseriesofpoker.com for more updates during the evening, and here for players to follow.
The WSOP unofficially starts at 9am today as the Amazon Room at the Rio opens for registration, cash games and satellites before the tournaments begin Wednesday with Event #1, the $500 Casino Employees tournament. That’s as good a reason as any to do the preview for this year’s World Series of Poker, so here’s some things to look out for during the Series:
Annie Duke vs. Joan Rivers tonight … (getting underway live … we West Coasters have to wait a bit). I’m still not sure whether or not they’ve already done their task … my guess is they have, so tonight, “live”, is the final boardroom. Either way, @TexDolly is having fun coming up with some “Boo Joan!” doozies:
Joan Rivers got trapped on an escalator. The power went out,
12:45 PM May 8th from webJoan Rivers has a concussion. She was getting a drink and the toilet seat fell on her head.12:27 PM May 9th from web
Meanwhile, you can follow Annie (@RealAnnieDuke), and probably even better, her boyfriend (@JoeUgly), before-during-after tonight’s finale. Likewise for @JoanRivers___.
Others on-set or nearby:
@CelebApprentice (@MelRivers and @brandenroderick got the official tweeting gigs)
@Zappos
@tomgreenlive
@Andy_Bloch
@natalie_gulbis
@howardhlederer
Crap, one of my final four picks is already out. Erik Seidel. I so almost went the other way with that one, too.
Otherwise, all is well in my bracket. Got the 4 3 other matches right — Farha d. Cunningham, Eastgate d. Bloch, Lindgren d. Lederer, Elezra d. Chan. Alas, we will not be seeing Gowen vs. Lederer deep, which Ali Nejad reminded us yesterday woulda been great for poker, because it probably woulda been followed on Court TV.
CORRECTION: I guess I changed my pick on Chan vs. Elezra / didn’t go with my gut. Of course Eli was gonna win.
If you wanna follow a little more play-by-play, take your pick:
CardPlayer.com
PokerNews.com
PokerListings.com
Flipchip for really good photos.
Audio stuff TK at PokerRoad.
And it’s still not too late to get in on the bracket-picking action … though points scored on matches already started won’t count in the end. We’re doing this with our forum friends at PokerRoad. Show who’s boss.
UPDATE: Yang defeats Gowen! Boo Jerry Yang! Makin’ us rankers eat it!
We all knew something fishy was going on with Clonie and Full Tilt, right? And we’ve always wondered how exactly Full Tilt operates — seriously it’s kinda a mystery, even to people who work for them — and now, with Clonie Gowen suing four different companies connected to the game so many play with the pros, we should find out quite a bit of interesting info.
As far as I know, this is the first time any online poker biz that operates in the grayish world of processing money from American players (really really light gray, but still … ) will have to show its stuff publicly. Even Ultimate Bet/Absolute, with all the audits and investigations hasn’t really had to show anything it doesn’t want to to anyone outside its own semi-corporate family.
Um, hole-card cameras in the courtroom?
Gowen v. Tiltware LLC, et al.,
Plaintiff: Cycalona Gowen
Defendant: Full Tilt Poker, Tiltware LLC, Pocket Kings Ltd., Kolyma Corporation, A.V.V., Raymond J. Bitar, Howard Lederer, Andrew Bloch, Phillip Ivey, Christopher Ferguson, John Juanda, Phillip Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Michael Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen and Patrick AntoniousCase Number: 2:2008cv01581
Filed: November 14, 2008Court: Nevada District Court
Office: Las Vegas Office [ Court Info ]
County: Clark
Presiding Judge: Judge Robert C. Jones
Referring Judge: Magistrate Judge Robert J. JohnstonNature of Suit: Contract – Other Contract
Cause: 28:1332 Diversity-Other Contract
Jurisdiction: Diversity
Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff
They’re talking about it on 2+2, and the summary of her allegations below comes from the Hendon Mob:
When it comes to charitable causes these days, paralyzed vets are better than kids with cancer … especially when trying to make a political statement with your fundraising. The politics of poker have gotten funky of late as the election season kicks into higher gear — so what better way to warm some electoral hearts than with a good-ole-fashioned charity tourney?
It’s gonna be a late-night event at Coors Field on Tuesday, Aug. 26. $500 a seat, with proceeds going to the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Hosted by the PPA, with Andy Bloch, Barry Greenstein, and Ben Affleck serving as poker ambassadors. Sponsored tables available for businesses looking for a meaningful way to spend their charitable dollars.
Registration is finally over for the Main Event, and a record 2,461 took to the felt today in their quest to be part of the November Nine and take down the over $9.1m first place prize. Among those who’ve already been eliminated today: Phil Ivey, Jennifer Tilly, Andy Bloch, Jose Canseco, Annie Duke, Allen Kessler, David Williams and Noel Furlong. The leader at the dinner break appears to be Brad Tisdale with about 112,000 in chips. Notables towards the top of the leaderboard: Victor Ramdin, Thomas “Thunder” Keller, Aaron Kanter, Jean-Robert Bellande, Brandon Cantu, Mark Newhouse and Antonio Esfandiari. You can follow the players as they return from their dinner break at the WSOP.com site here.
More updates later this evening…
Wrapping up yesterday’s action, with a preview of today’s tournament (with a moment of silence for John Bonetti):
The $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed event finally reached their final table at around 5:30am, now they have to attempt to get some rest before returning in front of the watchful eye of the ESPN360 cameras at 2pm with this sextet:
Seat 4: Richard Lyndaker 2,345,000
Seat 3: Joe Commisso 1,961,000
Seat 5: Tom Lutz 1,493,000
Seat 1: Samuel Trickett 1,045,000
Seat 6: Edward Ochana 928,000
Seat 2: Davidi Kitai 298,000
The $1,500 Stud Eight or Better stopped play with 13 players remaining as they play down to a winner starting at 3pm. Here’s the approximate chip counts of the baker’s dozen (chip counts and seats to be rearranged later):
(Table 14)
Seat 1: Ryan Hughes 73,000
Seat 4: Margaret Macre 173,000
Seat 5: James Richburg 274,000
Seat 6: Ron Long 33,000
Seat 7: David Brooker 45,000
Seat 8: Daniel Nicewander 41,000
(Table 15)
Seat 1: Mike Hefer 71,000
Seat 2: Tim D’Alessandro 82,000
Seat 3: David Sklansky 110,000
Seat 4: Thomas Hunt III 101,000
Seat 6: Alessio Isaia 172,000
Seat 7: Joshua Feldman 121,000
Seat 8: Jonas Klausen 346,000
Other tournament action (plus the final 24 in the $50k HORSE) on page 2:
More…
What’s happened tonight while preferring to watch the Pokerati Bowling Series over PBS every time:
The $3,000 NL Holdem event is down to headsup play with John Phan and Johnny Neckar. There’s been some controversy over where the action has taken place. First, David Singer had an issue with the lighting in the area and requested to be moved to another location. The table they were moved to was in the center of the tournament floor, and the crowd of players in other tournaments, fans, and media were too much for the players. The floor staff would eventually rope off the area to give the combatants some breathing room. Singer eventually finished in 5th place, chip leader Matthew Vengrin would be eliminated in 3rd.
More after the leap:
What happened at the WSOP last night while Phil Hellmuth was humble in defeat…
In a table full of well known names, it was online regular Phil Galfond who took down the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event, beating Adam Hourani in a heads-up match that lasted over 100 hands. David Benyamine would finish 3rd. Galfond gets to take down over $817,000 and take the WSOP earnings lead over Grant Hinkle by less than $1,000.
The $1,500 NL event winner last night was Vitaly Lunkin, who beat Brett Kimes headsup to win just over $628,000 and the coveted bracelet. Other results from that event can be found here.
Two more final tables were established last night, they can be found on the next page:
What’s happening at the WSOP while some people can’t wait to turn 21 to play in Vegas. For those unfamiliar with Ozzy87, his name is Aurangzeb Sheikh, he made a WPT final table at 18, and has had previous issues with the law.
I’ve been snapping quite a few photos of the tournament players thus far, but the one that I wanted is not yet a reality. I saw Vinnie Vinh wandering through the tournament area this morning, then again in the Poker Kitchen, but I wasn’t quick enough with the cam. Doh.
But here are some pics that I did get this morning. Andy Bloch’s shirt says, “I never finish anything.” Jeff Lisandro looks like he’s winding up for the pitch. And Tom looks like he’s, well, playing poker. Go figure.
News from around the WSOP as you try to figure out what one can do with 21,000,000 Continental OnePass miles.
The poker action continues to accelerate Three tournaments will be in action today on Day 4 of the World Series of Poker. Starting at 12 noon is the $1,500 PL Holdem event, while at 5pm the $5,000 Mixed (1/2 Limit, 1/2 No Limit) Holdem event will commence. Last year, these two events drew 781 ($1,500 PL Holdem winner Michael Spegal) and 451 ($5,000 Mixed Holdem winner Steve Billirakis) and many will be watching to see if these numbers we’ll improve today.
At 2pm, the 447 combatants who made it past the minefield of Days 1a/b come back in event #2 ($1,500 NL holdem) to play down to their final table on Tuesday. Among the chip leaders include David “Gunslinger” Bach, Shane “Shaniac” Schleger, and Frank “Take That” Sinopoli. Others who’ve moved on to Day 2 include Perry Friedman, Kenny Tran, John Phan, Terrence Chan, Todd Witteles, and Gavin Griffin.
What happened yesterday:
More…
What’s going on at the WSOP as Pauly writes that the success of event #2 doesn’t mean all is well in the poker economy and the Poker Shrink opines that 2008 may be the year that poker reaches its peak.
The first final table is taking place right now, as Andy Bloch is dominating the final table at this time. Patrik Antonius (named a Team Full Tilt Pro in a press conference today) was an early casualty, while Kathy Liebert (on a final table deal with PokerStars) was hanging in there with 4 left.
Monday will be the first day with two tournaments starting the same day. Noon brings the $1,500 Pot-limit holdem event, while at 5, the $5,000 Mixed Holdem (half limit, half no-limit) will get started. Many pros surely will be double-dipping tomorrow if they get eliminated early in the day, as always Pokerati will be there to blog their little hearts out, God bless them.
Another day, another 2,000 players will be expected to start play in the first $1,500 NL event of the 2008 WSOP. When play starts shortly after 12pm PT today, the record for the largest field in WSOP preliminary event history will have been set, all that’s left to be answered is if it can break the magical 4,000 figure. Today’s field will match the progress of day 1a, playing eight 60-minute levels plus the first 16 minutes, 13 seconds of level 9.
Today will also have the first final table, as the $10,000 PL Holdem event finished up just before 5:00am, setting up a fantastic final table under the ESPN cameras. This final table has something for every section of the poker community. You have the young Internet stars (Mike Sowers and Amit Makhija), players wel-known to the mainstream audience (Phil Laak and Mike Sexton), a female player (Kathy Liebert), a math genius (Andy Bloch), international stars (Patrik Antonius and Nenad Medic) and a good ole boy from North Carolina (Chris Bell).
Here’s how the final table will be seated:
More…
Yesterday, Short-Stacked Shamus took us to the quarterfinals of the 64-player Full Tilt Poker tournament.
Later in the evening, it was determined that the four players going to the semifinals would be:
David Singer v. Brian Hastings
Andy Bloch v. whitelime (Emil Patel)
When players returned to the action today, the matches were slow but solid. Patel took control of his match with Bloch and applied pressure until he took it down. Singer dominated Hastings throughout their match and finally claimed victory. That meant that the final round was:
David Singer v. whitelime (Emil Patel)
Both players started with 160K in chips and played 12-minute levels, beginning with a 75 ante and blinds at 300-600. (It was actually interesting to watch the virtual match with a little virtual audience in the background.) Singer jumped out to an early lead and never allowed Patel to gain any ground. In the end, Singer took it with pocket 8’s over Patel’s 10-3 off.
Final payouts:
1st – David Singer $560,000
2nd – Emil Patel $320,000
3rd – Brian Hastings $168,000
4th – Andy Bloch $168,000
5th – Patrik Antonius $96,000
6th – Dani Stern $96,000
7th – mischiefofmagic $96,000 (won a $535 satellite to enter)
8th – mastrblastr
Just flipping channels while changing Pokerati’s spark plugs … and Lucky You is on HBO. I’m Tivo’ing it. It’s only fair that if we’re gonna continue to look at this movie as the Greek Tragedy that poker has become, I should actually watch it.
5 minutes in — Dude’s in a pawn shop muttering … losing interest.
7 minutes in — Fontana Room, Sammy Farha saying “raisey daisey” … don’t care … ooh, wait, it’s the fat guy from Borat? At-the-table hand analysis and Andy Bloch’s hat … hmmm.
11 minutes in — Horatio Sanz as Robert Goldfarb?
18 minutes in — OK, tuning out for now. Got better things to do. Online poker joke, ha. Flush got there, damn.
He pushes all-in on a board of 
. (He’s holding 
.) The audience — fewer than 80 people, but crammed together to make them look like more — jumps from their seats when Jordan announces the all-in and crowds around the mini-table. Andy Bloch thinks and thinks for several minutes, flips a two-headed quarter and calls with his 
.
River is 
.
People are wondering about the call. I contend it woulda been the right decision had he gotten a better river.
Andy Bloch caught an ace on the river to best Huck Seed … so he moves on to what is theoretically his second-biggest heads-up match of his career (the first being the 2006 $50k HORSE finals against Chip Reese) vs. his longtime poker pal and Full Tilt cronie Chris Ferguson.
This matchup is also an East Coast vs. West Coast thing … pitting Dr. Ferguson’s game-theory upbringing and Ph.D. in computer science from UCLA against Bloch’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT and JD from Harvard Law … so let’s hope no one gets shot.
The Final Four is set … and PokerStars, Ultimate Bet, and Bodog have all been fully eliminated. The upcoming matches:
Phil Ivey vs. Chris Ferguson
Huck Seed vs. Andy Bloch
Holy crap, it looks like it will be some actual hardcore competition amongst four notably accomplished players. Who woulda thunk it?
Also totally shocking commendable is that CardPlayer’s coverage is kicking butt …
There was a pretty interesting article in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal about a recent gathering at Harvard University, which set out to bring together some of the brightest minds in academia to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that poker is a game of skill. (Uh duh.) Howard Lederer was the main poker dude on hand, along with famed Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch, PPA honcho Michael Bolcerek, and a number cruncher who wants to run the math on billions of hands.
The WSJ’s unscientific poll is currently running 77-23 in favor of skill. Read the article and you’ll see this isn’t about rehashing old theories and debates … because really, what do you think the poll results would be if we asked: “Is life primarily a matter of skill or luck.” I am guessing 77-23 might be pretty close to the results here, too.
In the article, Lederer espouses a new talking-point argument that I hadn’t yet heard/thought of:
The “vast majority” of high-betting poker hands, he says, are decided after all players except the winner have folded. So if no one shows his cards, Mr. Lederer says, “can you legally argue that the outcome was determined by luck?”
Cool stuff — and good to see, in the ivory towers at least, a growing recognition of how some of what is currently shaking down in the poker world reaches into important future matters of internet law, international law, international business, and economics.
After his strategy session wrapped up, Prof. Nesson led the group to a bar for drinks. He was delighted, he said, at how the group “pushed game theory to the level of metaphor.” Sipping a scotch on the rocks, he tossed out the idea of creating a poker university, with himself as one of its teachers. Then, “we could infuse all levels of education with the skills that come from poker,” he said.
