Don’t know much about bullfights. I know Carmen ends up at one. And there’s that part in The Sun Also Rises when everybody goes to Pamplona to drink and watch ‘em. Apparently your traditional corridas de toros features three distinct stages or tercios, each full of symbolic significance and designed to increase suspense before the final killing of the bull.

This week Juan Carlos Mortensen, a.k.a “El Matador,” successfully completed a third big stage in his World Poker Tour career, besting a field of 143 players at the WPT Hollywood Poker Open in Lawrenceburg, Indiana to take down the $393,820 first prize. That makes three WPT titles for the Ecuador native, tying him with Gus Hansen for the most ever.

As B.J. Nemeth noted in his WPT live reports, the win also makes Mortensen the all-time money leader in WPT history, bringing his total earnings to $5,754,308. Mortensen’s other WPT titles include a victory at the WPT Doyle Brunson North American Championship in 2004 and a win at the WPT Season Five Championship at the Bellagio in 2005.

B.J. also points out that Mortensen has now amassed more than $9.6 million in career tourney winnings. In other words, he’s killing.

Add to all of that Mortensen’s pre-boom WSOP Main Event title in 2001, and he’s certainly helped his candidacy for such things as the vote for the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions (where as of this moment he does appear among the Top 50 vote-getters). Not to mention helping his cause for possible Poker Hall of Fame consideration.

For more discussion of “El Matador” — as well as the WSOP TOC and other pokery topics of the day — check out this week’s episode of The (award-winning) Poker Beat.

She theoretically has my vote:

Pauly and I get practically weepy at Mike Sexton’s Hall of Fame induction, with help, of course, from Padraig Parkinson.

Episode 4: Voter Hesitation

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Episode 5: Touched by Sexton

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The long wait is almost over as the November Nine take their place at the final table Saturday afternoon. The following look at stack sizes, seat position, blind levels, M, etc. is part of a much larger post I made over at 2+2 regarding the final table, the information taken from the WSOP November Nine Media Guide:

Final Table Details

1 – Darvin Moon 58,930,000
2 – James Akenhead 6,800,000
3 – Phil Ivey 9,765,000
4 – Kevin Schaffel 12,390,000
5 – Steven Begleiter 29,885,000
6 – Eric Buchman 34,800,000
7 – Joseph Cada 13,215,000
8 – Antoine Saout 9,500,000
9 – Jeff Shulman 19,580,000

More…

Howard Stutz over at the Las Vegas Review Journal’s Inside Gaming blog reports that Mike Sexton will be the only person to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in November. An official announcement will come from the World Series of Poker and Harrah’s Entertainment on Thursday.

Hat tip to “riverdance” on 2+2 for the link.

It’s always generally amusing when poker pros semi-catch the attention of those charged with letting us know about celebrities showing up at various locales around town. Yesterday, at the Palms:

Former MLB athlete and manager, Pete Rose dined at N9NE Steakhouse inside Palms Casino Resort Saturday night (10.3.09). Wearing a white dress shirt, blue jeans and white alligator boots, he joined his friends Mike Bertolini (sports memorabilia agent), Todd Brunson (professional poker legend) and Brunson’s son Doyle. They gathered for a short while to enjoy some cappuccino, leaving a little after 10 p.m.

Todd really is a legend when you think about it … but didn’t realize he had a coffee-drinking squirt named Doyle, LOL. A little curious what they musta been talking about with Pete Rose and a sports memorabilia agent. Perhaps Rose is thinking about making a go at the Poker Hall of Fame?

And yet this time, he doesn’t even try to get camera-time, even though he’s holding the camera. Via twitvid … @Phil_Hellmuth gives us a tour into the bowels of the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square, where, yes, he will indeed be making another uber-grand Caesar’s entrance for WSOP-Europe.

While I personally found it interesting to see the layout of the casino and how it fits innocuously within a cityscape, his encounters with Men the Master and Mike Matusow are also quite good.

Watch (a tired) Men for tells as Hellmuth calls him “the Vietnamese Godfather of Poker” and addresses when he will or will not get into the Hall of Fame. And hear Matusow explain why he thinks the Caesar’s Cup is a “farce” … he swears it’s not just because he didn’t get picked to play.

The official ballot has been released … so basically I’ve got about three weeks to choose Mike Sexton and one other guy from this list, in alphabetical order:

BARRY GREENSTEIN
DAN HARRINGTON
PHIL IVEY
TOM McEVOY
MEN NGUYEN
SCOTTY NGUYEN
DANIEL NEGREANU
ERIK SEIDEL
MIKE SEXTON

I see two who definitely won’t get my vote. As for the rest, will have to give them some thought. It’s gonna be a tough call. I’ll probably do a bracket.

Click below for the official press release on it all, giving the criteria, PHOF schedule, etc.:

More…

Yes, I’m aware that the weekend is half over, but gimme a break, will ya? Got a couple of things worth watching while checking out the Sunday majors tomorrow or…if your weekend just needs a little poker pep in its step.

First, the EPT Kyiv (that’s how they insist it’s spelled) reached its final table today and will see it play out tomorrow. One of the most interesting aspects of the European Poker Tour is its EPT Live broadcast, with whole cards and great commentators to break down the action. PokerNews reporter Gloria Balding takes us behind the scenes in this video, with a cameo appearance from Benjo. (BTW, big congrats to Short-Stacked Shamus for taking down the media tourney last night/this morning!)

Second, ESPN’s Inside Deal show has kept me interested for three weeks and looking forward to each new show. It’s turning out to be an informative/funny/fresh idea that is pretty dang well done. Check out last Tuesday’s episode with Barry Greenstein as the special guest:

And finally, a few lot of words from Daniel Negreanu in his latest Raw Vegas video diary. He discusses many of the issues he addressed in his blog recently, such as Phil Ivey reaching the WSOP main event final table and his feelings about the Poker Hall of Fame (his nomination, etc.), but he also touches on a recent trip to Toronto to visit his still-hospitalized mother. Thoughts go out to Daniel as his decisions get tougher in the months/years to come.

Watch Daniel Negreanu: Phil Ivey is the Best Poker Player in the World on RawVegas.tv

After Doyle Brunson voiced his opinions about the Poker Hall of Fame nominees the other day, Daniel Negreanu decided to write a little ditty about it himself. Considering Negreanu is one of the nominees, it is interesting to note that he agrees with Brunson and feels Sexton deserves the most votes.

I don’t get a vote, but if I did it wouldn’t be a tough decision for me at all. For the same reasons that Doyle believes Mike Sexton should be the #1 guy, I agree 150%. He’s played “high enough” is well respected “enough” for his play, and has been around along time. He simply has no equal, however, when it comes to contributing to the growth of poker.

As for his own nomination, Negreanu feels that it’s not his time. Though he’s pretty confident he’ll get in to the Hall of Fame eventually, he doesn’t feel he should get the votes in 2009.

As for me, I was flattered to be nominated, but don’t feel at all like I should be voted in. I don’t feel like I have a lot to prove exactly, and I do think I’ll get voted in eventually, just not now. Mike Sexton needs to go in now. There are also a few other older guys who should go in ahead of me. I always kind of figured, back when we used to hang out a lot, that me, Ivey, Juanda, and Cunningham would all go in together, but I don’t see that happening.

Doyle Brunson has become quite open in his blogs and tweets over the past year or so, which is great for poker, in my opinion. Being privy to his opinions on issues gives the poker community a perspective from one who’s been in the game longer than most. His latest “deep thoughts” pertain to the Poker Hall of Fame, as his membership in the elite club garners him a chance to vote on this year’s list of nominees.

He pulls no punches, noting in his latest blog post that Mike Sexton is his top pick, and he also likes Tom McEvoy, Erik Seidel, Scotty Nguyen, and Barry Greenstein. Interesting that he notes he’s admired Men the Master’s “work ethic” for years without any mention of numerous and widespread allegations of him cheating in live games.

With Doyle ready to make his picks, his thoughts likely echo many of the other Hall of Fame voters. See below for specifics:

More…

Not only did you, the everyday Joe pokerer, get to have your say on who gets considered for the Poker Hall of Fame, but now, coming up soon, via Wicked Chops, you can weigh in with Jason Alexander and Brad Garrett on the historically most significant WSOP railbirds:

Watch Girls on the Rail Hall of Fame with Jason Alexander, Brad Garrett and Gavin Smith on RawVegas.tv

Hundreds of people voted online at www.wsop.com to create the 2009 nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame, with the top 10 to be voted on by the living Poker Hall of Fame members and 15 members of the poker media. Here’s the list of the 10 nominees, in alphabetical order:

Tom Dwan
Barry Greenstein
Dan Harrington
Phil Ivey
Tom McEvoy
Men Nguyen
Scotty Nguyen
Daniel Negreanu
Erik Seidel
Mike Sexton

The entire press release after the jump:
More…

Players to Watch

Negreanu

Wahlbeck

Johnston

Shinn

Turner

Flack

Boukai

Recapping the conclusion of Monday’s play… and looking forward at Tuesday’s action ready to get underway.

Foley Flies Home a Winner

Ray Foley, a business manager for Chrysler Financial, bested Brandon Cantu headsup to take down the $1,500 NL Holdem event early Tuesday morning, collecting $657,969 along with his first WSOP bracelet. Cantu was hoping to pick up his second, starting heads-up play and had Foley drawing to two outs in what appeared to be the final hand, but Foley caught a third ten on the turn to pass Cantu’s flopped pair of kings to take the lead. Foley’s Q-J outkicked Cantu’s J-7 on a jack high board in the final hand to send Foley, a resident of Northville, Michigan home the winner. Alex Jacob was the only other notable at the final table, finishing third.

Graham Cracks Russian, Wins PLO World Title

The $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship was won by Matt Graham, coming back from a 9 to 1 chip deficit to win his second career WSOP bracelet. The other three previous WSOP bracelet winners finished 7th, 8th and 9th (Josh Arieh, Richard Austin and Barry Greenstein respectively).

Five Remain in 5k Shootout

The final table of the $5,000 NL Holdem Shootout is now set, and here’s how the players will be seated, each with 1,500,000 in chips when play resumes at 2pm PT:

Seat 1: Maxim Lykov – 900000
Seat 2: Danny Wong – 900000
Seat 3: Andrew Lichtenberger – 900000
Seat 4: Peter Traply – 900000
Seat 5: Nasr El Nasr – 900000

Turner Hopes To Turn It On Again

14 players remain in the $2,500 8-Game Mixed event with Jon Turner (469,200) the chip leader when play resumes at 2pm. Other notables returning: Adam Friedman (325,800), Layne Flack (283,400), former MMA fighter and bracelet winner Rami Boukai (137,700), and Jimmy Fricke (47,400).

Seniors Day 2

Lloyd Shinn of Dallas (86,500) leads the 397 players returning for Day 2 of the $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship at 2pm. Former WPT winner Eric Hershler (82,500) is in second. A few names stand out among the remaining players, such as Jerry Reed (38,500), former WSOP Main Event winner Berry Johnston (29,400), “Minneapolis Jim” Meehan (27,400), and Hall of Famer Barbara Enright (24,600).

Razzerific!

Day 2 of the $2,500 Razz has Warwick Mirzikinian the leader (59,400) of the 118 players returning at 2pm on Tuesday. The field started with 315 players, only 32 making the money. Notables also returning include: David Chiu (41,800), Kenna James (38,600), Ville Wahlbeck (35,300), Justin Bonomo (30,600), Daniel Negreanu (21,900), and Archie Karas (15,900).

Tuesday’s Tournaments

Another two tournaments on Tuesday, starting with the $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem World Championship, won last year by Nenad Medic for almost $800,000 in a field of 352. The 5pm tournament is the debut of the $2,500 Omaha 8 or Better event. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 370 for the 10k PL Holdem event, while in the $2,500 OHL, a field of 525 is projected.

You, the poker fan, can participate in the nominating process for the Poker Hall of Fame for the first time starting today. Head over to worldseriesofpoker.com and nominate someone (one vote per email address). Here’s the criteria for the Poker Hall of Fame:

* A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
* Played for high stakes
* Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers
* Stood the test of time
* Or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

Voting will take place from May 26-July 2nd, and the top 10 names under consideration will be announced during the WSOP Main Event. In August, the Hall of Fame committee will review the nominations and determine the final list of nominees. In September, the surviving Poker Hall of Fame members, along with select members of the media, rank the nominees and the top two selections (or whomever receives 75% of the votes, depending on what source you look at) will be announced during the Main Event final table in November.