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.
Event 4 ended rather early on Tuesday Night as the players and casino staff decided to put the final table off for an extra day. Apparently they figured that the online coverage would not be very popular at 4am so the decision was made to delay the final table until today. Considering that the WSOP has a similar turnout and it takes almost two weeks to play, the tournament staff has done a great job in keeping this tournament on track.
The best two players left in the field also happen to hold the number one and two spots on the leader board and have a significant edge over the remaining players. The winner is going to walk away with $771,106. Your standings and chip counts for the final table are:
Dan Heimiller (4,155,000)
Steve Sung (3,395,000)
Vilandos Panayote (1,940,000)
James Matz III (1,885,000)
Jeff Oakes (1,680,000)
Lary Sidebotham (1,500,000)
Phong Huynh (1,310,000)
Nathan Mullen (1,120,000)
Danny Fuhs (965,000)
The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Event has also reached its final table. Event 5 also had a strong turnout with 809 players starting the event. An Tran and Jason Mercier are the two biggest names left playing, but the lead is held by Kevin Iacofano. He only had one WSOP cash under his belt and it was a 53rd place finish in a NL event. It will be interesting to see how he handles the final table pressure. Your final tables chip counts and standing are:
Kevin Iacofano (770,000)
Jonathon Tare (639,000)
An Tran (445,000)
Jason Mercier (384,400)
Dario Alioto (315,000)
Matt Giannetti (311,000)
Seven Burkholder (263,000)
Chris Biondino (182,000)
Event 6, The $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship is the third final table of the day. There are only 11 players remaining and when this tournament gets back up, expect some chips to be flying with the remaining pros putting extreme pressure on the rookies. There are still some huge names left and this tournament is the best shot of a big name pro taking down a bracelet so far. Even though Negreanu is short stacked, do not count him out if he gets a couple of decent hands early. However, the smart money should be on Lisandro as he is sitting pretty and playing great cards. Rankings are chip counts are as follows:
Eric Drache (785,000)
Hasan Habib (593,000)
Freddie Ellis (580,000)
Jeff Lisandro (524,000)
Ville Wahlbeck (472,000)
Max Pescatori (401,000)
Ivan Schertzer (368,000)
Gret Mueller (208,000)
Daniel Negreanu (191,000)
Ray Dehkarghani (141,000)
Tim Phan (45,000)
In other tournaments…
Event 7, $1,500 NL Hold’em, started out with another large field. 2791 players showed up and almost 80% of them have been shown the door so far. The pro carnage in this tournament was worse than usual. One thing you can always count on though is an early exit from Chris Moneymaker. Once again, he busts out early and does not make the money. In addition to Moneymaker, Ferguson, Juanda, Deeb and Rousso are all looking on from the rail. 297 players will make the money and top prize is $666,727.
Event 8, the $2,500 Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball (No Limit) has had one of the smallest fields of the series so far. Only 148 players signed up and it would be highly surprising to see anyone but a pro take this one down. Mostly because the game is a little off the wall and many people don’t have a clue how to play it. If you ever want a real shot at a bracelet, learn how to play stud, razz and triple draw and you will find yourself in small fields that you just may be able to sneak your way through. Still standing in this event are the likes of Phil Ivey, Erik Lindgren, Freddy Deeb and Phil Hellmuth. The biggest surprise has to be Negreanu going out early as he had to be one of the favorites to take this one down.
Two more tournaments will kick off today so there will be plenty of action to catch up by the end of the night. Keep coming back for the latest at the 2009 World Series of Poker!
Day 2 of the 40th Annual No Limit Hold’em event was filled with fireworks. Mike ‘the mouth’ Matesow finally started to get some cards, but was eventually eliminated. Chris Moneymaker showed his true form and once again went out before the money. It is amazing that he managed to squander away a second place chip position early on in day two. You read it right here that he was quite capable of doing exactly that and he did not disappoint.
Moneymaker broke one of the cardinal rules of poker in shoving a huge stack into the middle of the table with anything less than AA or KK. The hand that started him on tilt happened around 6:15pm. Tony G. started the action and Moneymaker immediately applied the pressure with QQ in the hole. Tony G. made the call and turned over AK. We all know what happened and with Moneymaker getting up to take a walk, you almost knew the end was near.
Chris should have stayed away from the tables a few minutes more because when he returned, he found himself looking at 1010. He made a move in middle position by throwing out a $43,000 bet that was quickly called by Forrest and his KK. Moneymaker walked away disgusted and before Forrest could stop him, a flop of KJ10 showed up to but a further damper on Moneymakers outs.
With only one card left I the deck to help him, he was sent to the rail when it did not hit the turn or river. Once again, Moneymaker misses the cash in a major tournament. Some will say he can take solace in finishing only 10 out of the money, but it is quite apparent that his 2003 win was nothing more than a fluke as he continues to get shut out at the WSOP.
The leaderboard now looks more like a who’s who of poker as a lot of the pretenders have finally been dropped. While there are still a few amateurs left, the bulk of the field consists of big name pros that are out for that monster payday. Even with the all-star cast, the biggest name on the board is Greg Raymer.
The 2004 WSOP Champion has proven that he was no fluke. He continues to grab headlines and made it all the way back to the top 25 in 2005 after his amazing win in 2004. He has been playing perfect poker in the second session and it shows as he was the first player to cross the 2,000,000 chip barrier. As of this posting, he holds a 1,000,000 chip lead over the next closest competitor.
The hand that put him over the top of this mark was one of the biggest of the tourney so far. Steve Z. was dealt the dreaded QQ and Raymer found AK in the hole. Raymer had called a raise by another player and then Steve Zotlow pushed the action to 100,000. Neil Chirss, the initial raiser, called and then it was Raymer’s turn to start the fireworks. He came over the top and pushed all in and Steve Z. pushed in his remaining 670,000. Chriss decided to get out of the way of this battle. Steve Z. was still good on the flop, but once again, AK pops as a K hit the turn and Zotlow was sent to the rail.
Raymer is always tough with a chip stack as there are few better at big stack poker than him. He has not fear and will put every small stack on a decision as the money gets closer and closer. With only 7 players left to the money, people will be holding onto their stacks with both hands. It would not be a surprise to see Raymer knocking on the door of 3,000,000 when the money is finally hit.
The elimination list for Event #2 at the WSOP, the $40,000 40th Annual NL Hold’em Event, looks like a who’s who in poker. Hellmuth, Dwan, Minieri, Juanda, Negreanu, Chan, Duke, Greenstein, Ferguson, Elezra, Lindgren, Harmon, Deeb, Laak and Nguyen are all out. However, there are still some major players left in this field and it still looks very good for a notable pro to take this one down.
Hellmuth, as always, was one of the more entertaining eliminations. Ivey had been bullying him all day long and Hellmuth was just waiting for an opportunity to fight back. He finally drew a hand, AJh, and made a move on an Ivey raise and looked across the table at AK. Phil headed to the rail and was ranting the entire time.
Mike “The Mouth” Matusow has been noticeably quiet all day long as the cards have just not been coming his way. He has managed to stay alive though and while he is short stacked at $87,000, if the cards change, you would have to think that he is going to be have to be dealt with.
Big Papa has been hanging tough the entire day. While his stack has been up and down, he seems to be in true form and licking his chops at the $1.8 million dollar payday that goes to the winner. He will start day two at $244,000 in chips.
However, the story of the day has to be that Chris Moneymaker has not only made it past day one, but he is sitting in second place overall with $805,000 in chips. He has made some big calls, most notably against Ferguson, and may finally breakthrough in a major WSOP tournament for the first time since his WSOP win in 2003.
He has been about as big a bust as any World Series winner in the past. Literally being the one responsible for the current day poker boom, he has not had a major cash since the $2,500,000 payday 6 years ago. You often see him getting railed early on in day one, but not this time. He is still playing typical Moneymaker poker, but his cards are holding and the questionable calls are paying off.
The true test will come as this field narrows down. He is not afraid to call with any kicker, he makes huge bluffs and will chase down just about any hand. He is just as likely to go on a huge run as he is to go broke in the first fifteen minutes of the second day. However, if he starts to get cards, he will be dangerous because of the action that he gets when he is in a hand.
In addition to Day 2 of the 40th Annual NL Hold’em Event, the Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better $1,500 tournament starts today. This is a 3 day event and the players will start off with $4,500 in chips. Levels in both tournaments go for 60 minutes and the action kicks off at 12 noon PST.
Binion’s Horseshoe – The Original Home of the World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) originally started back in 1968 as an invitational event at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno, NV. The event was won by Crandell Addington. The World Series of Poker as we know it today started back in 1970 as a set of cash games that drew the best Poker players in the world together to compete for the title of WSOP. Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas, NV was the venue for this new World Series of Poker. The champion was determined by a vote and Johnny Moss emerged as the winner. For his win, Moss received a silver cup.
The next year, the champion was determined by a freezeout tournament and Johnny Moss again emerged the victor. 1973 saw the introduction of the first preliminary WSOP tournament. Bill Boyd won the Five Card Stud event for a grand prize of $20,000. Every year through 2003, the event was held at Binions. Many champions emerged victorious throughout the years including Doyle Brunson, Stu Unger, “Amarillo Slim” Preston, Johnny Chan, and Phil Hellmuth.
The Main Event was not the only poker tournament held at the World Series of Poker. Over the years bracelet events have been held in all forms of poker including Seven Card Stud, Pot Limit Omaha, H.O.R.S.E. and Lowball. Some games that have come and gone over the years include Five Card Stud, Five Card Draw, Ace to Five Draw, Match Play, Mixed Doubles, and Women’s Seven Card Stud.
The Rio – Home of the World Series of Poker
In 2004, Harrah’s Entertainment purchased the Horseshoe and the rights to the World Series of Poker. The event was then moved to the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino with the last two days played at Binions downtown. 2004 was the last year that any portion of the WSOP was held at Binions. Since then, the even has been held at the Rio. 2004 also saw Chris Moneymaker parlay an online satellite into a world title. Since then, the popularity of poker has exploded and ushered in the current Poker Boom.
By the time of the 2006 World Series of Poker, the fields had grown to such epic size that the Main Event was view much like a lottery. A new event was created to showcase the elite of the poker world and try and bring back some of the old school luster of the World Series of Poker. This event was the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. Chip Reese emerged as the first champion of the event and since then the event has showcased the best of the poker world.
The Main Event is still the World Championship of Poker. Each year thousands of players make the journey out to Vegas to try and put their name in the record books. This year’s World Champion is still to be determined. Harrah’s decided to delay the final table until November to allow for increased coverage of the event. The “November Nine” will reconvene on November 9th and play down to the final two. Those players will return on November 10th to play for the title and the $9 Million top prize.
