Well whaddya know … Pokerati fave [name deleted] still plays poker … and last night he (“luvgamble”) won WCOOP event #24: $530 NL 2-7 Single Draw. (Which really is the best psychology-based poker game of all.)
308 runners, 49 in the money. First Place paid a nice $42k … glad to see [name deleted] finally book a noticeable win in 2008, which will make me feel better taking a chunk of it in our presidential election wager.
The one unfortunate thing … [name deleted] always liked to play anonymously, and wouldn’t even tell me his PokerStars screen name for fear that I’d publicize it. But now, as it goes in poker because I have no conscience he actually won a semi-public event, I get to out him, and the “Shmonkey Shmomber” is stuck playing a Googleable screen name into perpetuity. Ha ha, er, I mean congrats!
Other notable money finishers with trackable screen names:
newhizzle – Mark Newhouse
Bill Chen – Bill Chen
GavinGriffin – Gavin Griffin
KidPoker – Daniel Negreanu
BeL0WaB0Ve – Kevin Saul
Meanwhile, here’s a moment of Zen from 10th-place finisher Bill Chen, speaking on “The Power of Acceptance”, and even the necessity of embracing plausible death:
As action gets underway on day 2B, we’ve got a few players you may or may not know that we’ll be paying a little extra attention to. Be sure to check in with CSR for some chip reports from and about:
Whit Blanton — He’s a wannabe semi-pro from Dallas, who’s almost made enough money in poker to quit his job. He sat at the same table as Pokerati teammate (P-mates?) Tom Schneider on Day 1, and took a little extra pleasure in reclaiming the chips that Tom had given to Mark Newhouse … particularly doing so by cracking Newhizzle’s aces with a skillfully played 68s. Whit starts the day in strong chip position with 101,450. The question to him on Day 2 is how he will wield it, especially when fueled by the boost of confidence a near-double-up at the end of Day 1 provided.
Pat Poels — He’s a two-time bracelet-winner and host at Casino Arizona who’s had an “OK” WSOP. He’s made more money than most of his buddies this year, but hasn’t yet had the big score to make his 2008 WSOP highly profitable. He had some stretches of really good cards in Day 1, which forced him to make some really big/frustrating/difficult laydowns. He goes into Day 2 with 64,650 chips.
Jerry Randack — Jerry’s a well-rounded player who burst onto the scene with a strong 2nd-place finish in the 2007 Pokerati Invitational, and has since found much success at the small-tourney tables. He cashed in a NLH event at the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge III, took 2nd in Triple-Draw Lowball in the Oklahoma State Poker Championship, and final tabled earlier this summer in a Binion’s Poker Classic PLO event. We’ll find out how he handles the Day 2 pressure of a short-ish stack — 29,700 — with blinds beginning to rise.
The Big Randy — TBR played comfortably throughout Day 1, and though he starts with a below-average stack — 27,100 — the self-proclaimed top-ranked all-around Batface (cash-game and tournament results) really likes the structure and recognizes the deep-stack nature of this tourney is still in play. “Feels like ’05,” he says, referring to his first main event where he nursed a much shorter stack for four day before cashing for $40k.
Robert Goldfarb — After “Goldfarbing” his way into the main event, he sits with 21,025 chips and has just been playing his game … though the cards haven’t yet come and he hasn’t yet gained any real traction. How the start of Day 2 goes for him, I think will be critical.
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.
In an effort to talk to more pros about playing in tomorrow’s $50K H.O.R.S.E. event, I ran into two players who are weighing their options and making decisions today about what to do.
Kenna James admitted that he does not have the money for the buy-in, though as Dan has previously noted, how many people really do? Kenna noted that a backer had contacted him about the possibility of working a deal, and he is considering that, as well as trying to win his way in through a mega satellite, the last of which is this evening at 5pm. With the announcement of the two additional satellite opportunities over the past few days, this gives him more outs. Personally, I didn’t get the feeling that he was super determined to play the H.O.R.S.E. event, but that remains to be seen.
Mark Newhouse is feeling good this year. With the disagreement with Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf out of the way and a backer firmly in place, he can be found walking around the Rio all the time, even standing around watching other tournaments on his own tournament breaks. He seems more determined than ever to make waves. For this reason, the $50K H.O.R.S.E. has definitely been on his mind.
While Newhizzle has a backing deal for the entire WSOP, he chose to exclude the H.O.R.S.E. event from that deal because “I don’t want that kind of makeup.” He also noted that despite his self-confidence, he doesn’t feel like a huge favorite in this particular event and wouldn’t want to take a chance on it by buying in directly with a backer’s money. He played two mega satellites last week and was not able to score a seat, but when I told him that there were mega opportunities still available, he immediately called his backer to discuss that option. If he wins a seat, he will play.
Day 1a of the $1,500 almost sold out, as over 2,000 started play. The play was fast and furiousEarlier this evening there was about 400 spots left for Sunday’s day 1b field, giving the appearance that the overall field will top 4,000 (beating the WSOP prelim record by over 800). The tournament went on its dinner break after level 6 about an hour ago; tournament staff decided play will end with either 225 left or 4 more levels whichever comes first. Contrary to what happened yesterday, someone did receive a 1-orbit penalty for CALLING with the nuts (recall yesterday a player checked down a royal flush and only got a warning).
Day 2 of the $10k PL Holdem event is in the hand-for-hand stage as there’s 37 left, with 36 hitting the pay window. Patrik Antonius, Eli Elezra, Phil Laak, Mike Sexton, Mark Newhouse and Dustin Woolf are among those still in the field at the time of posting.
8:20 Edit: Scratch Newhouse from that list, he finishes in 30th.
More from the rest of the Pokerati staff later tonight…
As friends, I mean. Mark Newhouse and Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf have had a feud that dates back over a year regarding money borrowed/stolen/used/owed. Last year’s WSOP was an especially low point for the former friends, as Newhouse made somewhat of a scene from the ropes when Woolf was playing in an event. Newhizzle spelled it all out in a blog post on Wise Hand.
Last I heard, Newhouse was telling me at the L.A. Poker Classic that he was contacting a lawyer to settle the situation and get his money back.
Evidently, the drama is water under the bridge because the two look to be buddies again. On a break from Day 2 of the $10k PLH tournament, where both remain in the field with less than 50 players left, they were chatting all the way out to the smoking lounge. Awww.
As the players on Day 3 of the L.A. Poker Classic approach the money bubble, there are still some very well-known players atop the leader board – Phil Ivey and David Singer. Jennifer Tilly doubled up through Humberto Brenes and is doing well. Alan Goehring, former LAPC champion, is hanging on to make a run at another title.
Sadly, however, Antonio Esfandiari seemed to be on a bad run this evening, then took a hit from Kyle Burnside, and just got eliminated. He’s had a great week with the announcement of his partnership with WPT, but a shot at a second WPT LAPC title would have been icing on the cake. It wasn’t meant to be, but there’s the NBC Heads-Up in a few days, along with the WPT Invitational next weekend. Momentum could take him far if he lets it.
