For anyone who is waiting to see the main event on TV when ESPN begins its coverage later this month, read no further. The rest of you who want to keep updated can follow along.
It is the end of Day 7 for all of the 27 players remaining and the 11th total day for the tournament. The biggest news has to be the presence of Phil Ivey who is 4th in at the end of the day. He has put his large chip stack to work by punishing the rest of the field. It will be his first cash in the Main Event since being bounced on a bad beat by Chris Moneymaker in 2003, a hand that was immortalized as one of the best hands of the year. He has to be the odds on favorite to win the title as he is one of only a few professionals remaining. He is within firing distance of the chip leader, Darvin Moon, who has over 20 million in chips. Ivey sits with just over 11 million.
Another notable pro who is remaining in the tournament is Antonio Esfandiari. With a little over 4 million in chips is on the short end of the field. Esfandiari has seen little success in the WSOP and has a small fan base thanks to other televised poker events such as High Stakes Poker and the WPT. He has a very good skill set and can be dangerous at any point in a tournament so he is one to watch out for, but “The Magician” needs to have a few tricks up his sleeve to take down this bracelet.
After today, the ”November Nine” will be set, so look for updates on the tournament along with player profiles right here.
No, you did not misread that. With day one having 4 sessions and day 2 having 2 sessions, it took 6 days to complete the first two days of the WSOP Main Event for 2009. While there were quite a few early exits from some of the superstars, there were just as many of them that flew to the top of the leader board and have put themselves in a premium position to make an honest run at the title.
The field has to be worried that three of the hottest players in this year’s WSOP are gathering chips in much the same fashion that they did on their way to bracelets already this year. Phil Ivey (376,000), Greg Mueller (287,300) and Jeff Lisandro (229,300) all have formidable stacks and they way that they have been playing this year, people have to be worried when they take a seat at their tables.
Friday marks the first time that all of the players will be sitting in the same room. The field got a rest day on Thursday and everyone comes back fresh for the big run at the final table. The overall chip leader will be Amir Lehavot (610,500) when they get started again. He has caught an amazing run of cards and has a 150,000 chip lead over the next closest player. That is quite amazing at this level of the tournament. It is actually reminiscent of the run that Jamie Gold put together when he won his championship. He continue to hold a huge lead throughout as nobody ever seemed to be able to put the hands together that could make a dent in his stack.
Other notable players that still have chips in front of them are Eric Cloutier (383,500), JC Tran (284,600), Kenny Tran (273,000), Justin Bonomo (223,300), Paul Wasicka (184,900), Dutch Boyd (163,600) and Phil Hellmuth (142,900).
Day 3 should see some decent movement as some of the newbies start to get antsy, especially when they are sitting at a table with one of the big name pros. If any of these players can catch a run of cards, their stack will get humongous as the amateurs seek to be the one that took them out. Someone like Hellmuth could walk out of the session with well over 1,000,000 in chips if the poker gods are looking down at him in a positive way.
In what has to go down as one of the greatest final tables and heads-up matches in WSOP history, David Bach finally ended the tournament at 10:00am Tuesday morning. It took 13 hours to get down to the final two and then an incredible 7 hours of heads-up play before we could crown a winner. If you read some of the earlier posts, we had touted Bach because of his superior 7 card stud play and that is exactly what enabled him to chip away at Hanson’s stack. Bach wins a monstrous $1,276,802 for the win and one of the most prestigious bracelets of the year.
In other tournaments…
While the talk of the day was the $50k H.O.R.S.E. tournament, once could not overlook the bracelet that was won by Abe Mosseri in the Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em Event. Once the event went to heads-up, he used timely aggression again and again on Masayoshi Tanaka and continued to grind away at his stack. By the time the last hand was dealt, Tanaka had the equivalent of a bb gun in the middle if Iraq. He can console himself with the $102,313 he takes home for second place. Abe fattens his bank account with a healthy $166,151.
There will be one more bracelet awarded tonight in Event 54. This one will go until late (or early depending upon how you look at it) in the morning as there are still 6 players holding onto chips and each and every one of them has over 1,000,000. Sergey Konkin holds the chip lead with 3,500,000.
The last event that is going on is Event 56. Lots of action in this one as it is a 6 handed tournament. A fat $1,003,218 first place prize awaits the winner and the way it looks now, we just may have a big name pro sneak through and snatch one. David Chiu, Shaun Deeb and Phil Hellmuth are all still alive. The overall chip leader is Matthew Waxman with 1,150,000 in chips.
If you wanted to see a Pot Limit Omaha clinic, all you needed to do was watch the final table of Event 35 on Friday night. Play after play, read after read was absolutely perfect and Richard Austin made quick work of the remaining players to capture his first WSOP Bracelet. While it was not a very large field, the $5,000 buy in made the payoff over $400,000. This tournament ended just after 8:00pm and is easily the fastest moving final table of the tournament. We saw lots of aggression and some bad timing from the other players at the table. The final hand was typical of the action with all three players committed and Austin obviously coming out on top.
In other tournaments…
Event 36 is moving along very well and as of this posting, there were only 66 players remaining. The bubble was 171 and after it was reached, they never looked back. Chips are continuing to fly and Jonathon Plens holds a small chip lead with 520,000 in his stack. Still a long way to go in this one though and lots of players are well within striking distance.
“You know it baby” is probably being heard quite often in Event 37 as the ever enjoyable Scotty Nguyen holds the chip lead with 317,000. As stated yesterday, this field is packed with superstars and they are all still hanging around. Both Doyle and Todd Brunson have worked their way up the leader board and are only 5,000 in chips apart. Some other notables that are stacking chips are Greg Raymer, Dutch Boyd and Howard Lederer. With only 36 players remaining, this final table is starting to shape up to be an all-star cast.
Event 38 was the only event kicking off today and it is still a little early for overall chip counts, but Kid Poker is making some noise early on in the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event. Erick Lindgren looks to be in trouble and Hellmuth’s stack seems to be growing at a steady pace. This is far and away the slowest day we have had in a while and it seems as though a lot of these players are starting to wear down. This is the break that a lot of them needed, except of course for those in the limit tournament and Stud Championship.
For those of you in the fantasy WSOP leagues, start taking the long days into account as a lot of these old-timers are starting to wear down. Frustration is also taking its toll on a lot of the cash players that are wasting days at a time only to get knocked out right before the bubble. If you want some insight, start reading the Tweets from the players and you can see that these big fields and multiple day tournaments are starting to wear thin. Look for a lot of the younger players and the season tournament pros to really start to shine.
The youngsters are at it again. Schulman took down his first WSOP Tournament, but it is surely not his last one. This kid is packed with confidence and this win could catapult him into stardom in the poker world. 2-7 Draw Lowball is not a very popular game, so this field was packed with just about every big name in poker that you can think of. While the field was the smallest yet, he truly earned this win.
The final hand of the tournament had Schulman on the button and opening for 75,000. Wahlbeck then pushed it up to 250,000 and was called. Both players went with one card on the draw and Wahlbeck continued his aggressiveness by pushing all in. Schulman almost fell over getting his chips in there as quick as possible and was already making the victory sign. He flipped over 7-5-4-3-2 for the perfect hand and Wahlbeck could do nothing but take solace in the second place finish and $172,864 that went with it. Schulman collected @279,742, a huge payday for a 96 man field.
Event 22 is still a long way from being decided with 6 players remaining in what is sure to be a marathon session. Chips are getting pushed back and forth and there are really only two short stacks on the table at the moment. Dig in for a long night boys! The current leader is Jeffery Carris with 1,066,000 in chips.
In other tournaments…
Event 24 has slowed down dramatically from the pace that they had played at yesterday. To say that they are moving at a snail’s pace would be a dramatic understatement. The tournament is supposed to get down to a single table tonight, but it looks like this crew will be coming back early tomorrow to get the job done. Glenn McCaffrey is still hanging tough in third place with 330,000 in chips, but the overall lead has been taken over by Ernst Hermans with a total of 355,700.
Phil Ivey has absolutely taken over Event 25, the mixed game of Omaha & 7 Card Stud Hi/Low 8 or better. He is currently sitting on just over 130,000 in chips and is playing perfect cards. There are still about 80 players left to go, so it would be a little premature to crown him the champ already. However, with him on the lead, it is going to be very difficult for anyone with a short stack to play against him. You can expect to see elimination after elimination on his table as he will make them play for their stack when they get involved in a hand with him.
Both Event 26 and Event 27 have gotten under way and are relatively short fields. The Limit Hold’em Event only has a field of 643 and about a third of them have already been railed. That is a pretty significant number with the tournament being a limit tournament. The field for Event 27 is still floating in and should be in the 200 player range. Expect to see a lot of big names in this tournament going after the bracelet with such a short field.
No, you did not misread that. With day one having 4 sessions and day 2 having 2 sessions, it took 6 days to complete the first two days of the 
