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
Watched Game of Thrones, now I am playing Sensible Soccer on the 360, for some reason. #Monday
@apokerplayer betting patterns, eyes, posture. the combos were all there, and spot on.
Great crAAKKer post by @Grange95: http://t.co/KcaobMfP) I wish I could write like Michael. Maybe someday. #poker #onlinegaming
