@Phil_Hellmuth

UB party starting at Studio 54 at MGM! On my way, i am making my entrance on a trapeze!! also i signed up for 2-7 tourney, c em a 11 pm
about 13 hours ago from txt

Drinking Dom in VIP booth with wife. Trapeze stunt from 5 stories up at 10:40 pm…Scary!
about 12 hours ago from txt

I am pretty drunk!! Chris Ferguson just called me and told me they picked me up in 2-7 tourney!!
about 9 hours ago from txt

Sunday July 5 i show up to WSOP as ‘Caesar: with 100 models, 11 muses w body paint, a chariot w 2 horses, and a drummer dropping rose petals
about 8 hours ago from txt

15,200 extra chips are in play going into Day 2 of the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw — roughly a third of which belonged to no-show Phil Hellmuth before tournament officials removed his remaining stack (in level 5) and refunded his late buy-in.

Plenty of grumblings about this situation from the rail …

Hellmuth bought into WSOP Event #55 by proxy — presumably near the last possible minute — with his 7,500 starting stack brought to the felt shortly before the end of the break between levels 2 and 3. His seat in the Brasilia Room remained empty for hours as he attended a much-ballyhooed Ultimate Bet party at Studio 54 in the MGM.

Hellmuth’s stack had been blinded down to about 2,500 when the event TD approached Chris Ferguson, who was playing, and asked if he had Hellmuth’s phone number. Ferguson did, and the TD called but got no answer. So he then called his supervisor, who apparently instructed him to remove Hellmuth’s chips from play.

Shortly thereafter — in Level 5 still — the number of entrants on the screen was reduced from 258 to 257, and prize payouts were downgraded accordingly.

At the end of Day 1, the 73 remaining players bagged a total 1,942,700 chips, even though the appropriate number for 257 players in a $2,500 event would be 1,927,500. No word yet on where the 10,000 chips that didn’t belong to Phil Hellmuth came from.

Click here to follow the action in $2,500 2-7 Triple-Draw when play resumes at 2 pm pacific. Plenty of interesting big-name pros and 2009 bracelet winners still in the hunt — Negreanu, Ankenman, Sung, Mueller, among them — along with a few dozen lesser known mixed-games grinders … all competing for a $166k $165k bracelet.

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One of the first “big” WSOP events will be the special, invitational Champions tourney … a non-bracelet freeroll for all previous main event champions, which will be one of only four televised ESPN events. This made-for-TV No-Limit Hold’em brouhaha — where players are competing for a shiny trophy and a red Corvette — should give the old-dog pros a chance to remind the 21st century WSOP millionaires who’s really boss … and the Varkonyis and Golds and Yangs a chance to say, “Hey, I didn’t just get lucky, Doyle Biznatch!”

27 players are eligible … and almost all have pre-registered. Bobby Baldwin ’78 has RSVP’d in the negative. But there’s one interesting name on the list of non-confirmeds* — well actually there’re five, but one of these is not like the others … in fact, as a member of the WSOP PAC, he’s probably on Jeffrey Pollack’s speed dial:

Mansour Maltoubi ’90
Hamid Dastmalchi ’92
Russ Hamilton ’94
Noel Furlong ’99
Chris Ferguson ’00

None of these are holdouts, from what we’re hearing … just MIA. (Though we’re not so sure the WSOP is looking that hard for Russ, because they could always give his invitation to Layne Flack.)

Wicked Chops is on the hunt for them here.

I’m still trying to figure out what it all means … who the plaintiffs are, and what they’re seeking. The best I can tell on first skim is that an LA attorney is representing himself, and seeking injunctive relief in an attempt to prevent Californians from gambling across state lines — i.e. James B. Hicks wants the site shut down.

This may or may not be connected to proposed legislation in California to allow players to gamble online within state lines.

Developing, obviously.

Click here to download and read the lawsuit.

UPDATE: Looks like this likely is a nuisance shakedowny kinda case … though personally I’m still suspicious that the proposed California intrastate online gambling bill might have something to do with it. From the Pokerati legal advisory team’s Cali branch:

This is really an attorney driven case under a California law called the “Unfair Competition Law” (UCL) that basically says, in part, that if any party is committing an act that is “unlawful” (i.e., violates a statute), that party can be enjoined from those unlawful acts and…..must pay the plaintiff’s attorneys fees. In other words, there probably is no harm to the plaintiff, but that may be irrelevant. This is really just a vehicle to get some attorneys fees paid.

This is really interesting stuff. As I alluded to in an earlier comment with respect to this case, the rubber will meet the road for FT when they have to testify with respect to the operation of the various companies and the contractual arrangements with other members of the FT Team. Looks like that will happen with the court-ordered depos of Bitar and, most interestingly, Ferguson. As I have said before, I cannot imagine that anyone with FT wants to talk about their dealings with Full Tilt Poker in such a forum, under oath, as it would seem to be tantamount to providing a knife to the butcher wanting to kill the goose who’s laying golden eggs. Plus, now there may be e-mails out there Clonie references that, at least, reference her deal? Wow, again, no way FT wants to go there.

Chewed up, spit out? Clonie Gowen is challenging the most fearsome of Full Tilt avatars in Clark County Court.

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?

Official court docs here.

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 Antonious

Case Number: 2:2008cv01581
Filed: November 14, 2008

Court: Nevada District Court
Office: Las Vegas Office [ Court Info ]
County: Clark
Presiding Judge: Judge Robert C. Jones
Referring Judge: Magistrate Judge Robert J. Johnston

Nature 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:

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We take you into Tao of Pokerati studios on a random Sunday evening bustling with action. Pauly and I look at Kiddie Table HORSE and discuss how a new player-of-the-year point system — with Scotty Nguyen and Erick Lindgren at the Big Dog HORSE final table — presents real possibilities for a WSOP Triple Crown. Special appearances by Isabelle Mercier, David Benyamine, Donkey Bomber, Jerry Buss, Cyndy Violette, Richard Brodie, and Chris Ferguson.

Episode 18: Triple Crown-and-Coke

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What’s happened today at the WSOP while I finally figure out what day it is in the Series.

The $1,500 Mixed Holdem event is down to its final 3 competitors with Jonathan Tamayo, Frank Gary and Nick Binger went on their dinner break. Binger, who at one point had over 1.6m in chips and had eliminated the first 6 players, lost his chip lead to Tamayo while Gray has been playing just enough to try and get into 2nd place. Follow their progress on the WSOP website here.

The $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event is also on dinner break 3 handed. Shun Uchida, John Phan and Gioi Luong are remaining in what has been a very contentious final table. Luong and Phan had a verbal altercation after Luong attempted to change his discard, while Phan angrily accused him of angle shooting. Things have appeared to calm down, but in all the tension, Uchida has a commanding lead at this time. To see how that turns out, check the updates over at worldseriesofpoker.com here.

The other updates appear on the next page:

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Finishing the recap from last night’s activities with a preview of today’s lone tournament:

The $5,000 Seven Card Stud Eight or Better World Championship concluded shortly after 2am, with German Sebastian Ruthenberg outlasting Chris “Jesus” Ferguson to win his first bracelet, along with just over $328,000 in a grueling 3 hour heads-up battle. Ferguson and Ruthenberg would trade the lead several times, each having a huge chip advantage. While some may say the structure went too fast at the end, I have the feeling he wouldn’t be as vocal if the other player won.

Final tables for today and other action from last night after the leap:

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Happenings for this evening as I found out from Jen I’ve become a member of the WPA all over again:

The $5,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship is down to the final 3, with Team Full Tilt Pro Chris Ferguson the dominate chip leader. Marcel Luske finished in 4th, Annie Duke finished 5th, you can catch all the action at the WSOP site here.

The other final table for today already has its champion, to find out who it was, click on the jump:

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Events from last night at the WSOP, as I try in vain to come up with new ways to say the same old stuff:

As Dan mentioned in the post below, Dario Minieri took down the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event in a final table that lasted almost 200 hands, surprising for a 6 handed final table. Seth Fischer finished in 2nd, putting a brutal beat on Justin Filtz to eliminate him in 3rd when the AK of Fischer ran down Filtz’ AA.

The $5,000 Stud Eight or Better final table was finally set after 7am this morning, and another first almost occurred as both Annie Duke and her brother Howard Lederer were among the final 9. However, Howard was eliminated in 9th, but the final table still has notable names such as Chris Ferguson, Steve Sung and Marcel Luske that will return at 5pm today to determine the winner. Here’s that final table:

Seat 1: Bob Lauria: 44,000
Seat 2: Marcel Luske: 308,000
Seat 3: Steve Sung: 207,000
Seat 4: Annie Duke: 277,000
Seat 5: Alessio Isaia: 398,000
Seat 6: Sebastian Ruthenberg: 663,000
Seat 7: Chris Ferguson: 434,000
Seat 8: Robert Beveridge: 288,000

The other final table today and other action after the thing you click to get to the next page:

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IT’S A MIRACLE: Full Tilt wasn’t exactly a poker powerhouse in 2000, the year Chris Ferguson won the main event.

There are 35 big banners hanging up around the Amazon room — a pretty cool ring-of-honor thing going on — honoring 38 years of main event champions and four players of the year … and I couldn’t help but notice one of them doesn’t belong. [Insert Tom joke here.]

Chris Ferguson, whose banner lords over the 75/150 Omaha-8 game that has been going on all night and through the morning, commemorates his 2000 win over TJ Cloutier. But look a little closer and you’ll see this photo is hardly authentic — it bears a Full Tilt logo … branding op for a company that didn’t exist at that time. All the other banner mugs feature pics from the feat in question.

The real Chris Ferguson, circa 2000.

UPDATE: Actually there are two of them like this … The picture of Dan Harrington supposedly from 1995 shows him fully decked out in 888 and Pacific Poker gear.

What’s happening at this moment while reading Gary Wise’s latest entry about what’s “good for poker” is really good for poker.

Today brings another two tournaments to the starting line, first at noon is the $2,000 NL holdem event and another large field is expected. The event the pros may be swooning over is the $10,000 Mixed Event “World Championship”. This tournament will have it all for the big cash game specialists as they throw eight games into the mix. This grouping of players will play Triple Draw lowball Deuce to Seven, Limit Holdem, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, Stud 8, No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha; playing each game for 8 hands before moving on to the next game in the rotation. Hopefully there won’t be many mixups between the players, dealers, and floor and this becomes a staple of the WSOP schedule.

Play finally finished earlier this morning in the marathon that was event #2, $1,500 NL Holdem. After over two hours of headsup play, Grant Hinkle made an aggressive move, raising and eventually going all in with 10d-4d against James Akenhead’s Ac-Kh. Things were looking good for James, but his was truly aching after the flop came down 10-4-10. A fourth 10 hit the turn and it was over, as Hinkle took the bracelet and over $800,000 in victory. Chris Ferguson finished 3rd, the full results can be found over at Pokernews.

What else happened yesterday:
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Jonathan Little’s most recent accomplishment was making the “Elite 8″ in the NBC Heads-Up Championship, scoring a $75k payday before being slapped by eventual winner and Full Tilt honcho Chris Ferguson.

While account-sharing is hardly the worst offense when it comes to poker ethics, it is in violation of Full Tilt T&C’s for their pros. So Little, who’s FT stock was on the rise, is now out. Stupid kid Yo, bummer dude.

Confirmed by Full Tilt here.

When a player on Full Tilt Poker plays against and chats with a red pro on the site, it is imperative that they be able to trust that it is really the advertised pro playing the account. Given that Mr. Little violated that trust, we have decided to sever his ties to the site, and close his account.

The first well-known pro to get busted for online account-sharing was Phil Hellmuth (outed here, and confronted about it here).

After that, Howard Lederer reportedly sent out a memo to all the Full Tilt pros letting them know that if they ever did something similar, they would be canned immediately. Little wasn’t part of the team when that went down, so maybe he didn’t embrace the seriousness that Full Tilt places on its integrity. Gotta wonder if these sorts of indiscretions will occur more regularly as Full Tilt continues to sign up more and more pros. Also wonder how long Little’s FT page will stay up online.

Brick-and-mortar tournament success here.

Dr. Chris Ferguson and his support-posse rejoice behind a trophy, a watch (or is it a bracelet?), and a plateful of half-a-mil. Fabolosa on his lap.

He pushes all-in on a board of [cards]10c 3s 7s 7h[/cards]. (He’s holding [cards]js jc[/cards].) 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 [cards]10s 4s[/cards].

River is [cards]7c[/cards].

People are wondering about the call. I contend it woulda been the right decision had he gotten a better river.

Tom Dwan, aka Durrr, cracked Phil Hellmuth’s pocket aces with pocket 10s in the third hand of the opening round of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship … and now there is talk of a rematch for $100,000.

(Hellmuth already made about $90k from other players offering insurance on the hand while waiting for the flop.)

Phil wrote about the hand itself — and he’s right, Durrr made a bad play — unless of course the online phenom was possibly taking Chris Ferguson’s philosophy that worked against TJ Cloutier into account, which says that when you are outmatched it is mathematically in your interest to gamble. Anyhow, here’s Hellmuth’s recall of how the 2008 hand went down … and here are the terms of a potential rematch:

After I told him that I wouldn’t have lost $3,000 with 10-10–which is the truth–Durr handled himself with class, albeit he did what all the young guys do when they’re a bit insecure, he challenged me to play heads up for $100,000. Durr knew he played the hand poorly, and if he doesn’t know now, he will understand how bad a play he made in two or three years. Will I play him heads up in the real world? Absolutely! But on my terms. I don’t need the money, and I have nothing to gain from playing him heads up, whereas he does have something to gain. He could say that he beat me. Despite that, here are my terms: I will play him in the bay area, in a casino (his terms, and I echo them), during the daytime (like starting at noon), whenever I feel like it (I choose the date). I don’t need to play him, I crushed him in three hands on NBC!! He may have won the chips, but the world knows who really won the hand!!