Posted by pokerguru on July 13, 2009
While Hellmuth’s cards ran a little hot and enabled him to build a decent stack, his cards were not the story of the day. The Poker Brat was in fine form as he threw temper tantrum after temper tantrum. When is this guy going to grow up? Does anyone still find this entertaining or has it become as old and annoying to you as it has to most of the poker fans that we know?
While he had several outbursts, 2 of them stood out from the rest. In one hand, he went to the flop with the lead of KQ to KJ. His opponent took the lead on the flop with a J hitting and the K on the river spelled disaster for Hellmuth. He continued to call down and then expected to win when he hit the river. He went off on the dealer about how he allowed a dominated hand to catch up to him as though it is unacceptable for anyone to hit a hand against him.
His last tirade of the day came during the last few minutes. The tournaments have had countdowns in the last 10 minutes by drawing cards to decide how many hands would be played. This prevents players from stalling so that they can avoid the blinds at the end of the day. For some reason, the tournament director allowed them to play down to zero and Hellmuth once again went off. While his point was correct, the scenes that he makes are quite annoying.
While the antics of Hellmuth tend to steal the headlines, the real story is the humongous stack that Bertrand Grospellier has managed to build. With a stack of 1,380,500, he holds over 400,000 to the second place player. While he was building his stack, well over 1,500 players found the rail. Some of the most notable victims of the day were: Jennifer Harman, Grey Raymer, Marco Traniello, John Cernuto, John Juanda, Robert Mizrachi, Jason Alexander, Matthew Vogel, Jeff Lisandro and David Ulliott.
Even though he was knocked out, Jeff Lisandro has wrapped up the Player of the Year Award as he had outlasted everyone that was within striking distance. There is no denying that he was far and away the best of the season with 3 bracelets to his credit and several other deep runs.
Day 4 will kick off at noon and there should still be plenty of fireworks to see. With 800 players still alive, we are over 100 people away from the bubble. Expect some aggressive play until there are about 10 players to go when the play will slow down dramatically. The short stacks will delay every hand in the hopes that someone else will get knocked out before them and the big stacks will get hyper-aggressive in the hopes of stealing blind after blind.
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Posted by James on September 21, 2008
Today’s field included Phil Laak, Andy Bloch, Andy Black, Michael Binger, John Phan, David Williams, Howard Lederer, Robert Williamson III, Allen Cunningham, Mike Matusow, David “DevilFish” Ulliott, Erica Schoenberg, Annette Obrestad, and Phil Hellmuth. Conspicuously absent were the Brunson. Doyle, Todd, and Pamela were absent from this event. It is not known whether they just have not arrived yet or just decided not to play this event.
Many players arrived late for today’s tournament, including the man that historically likes to arrive late and put on a show, Phil Hellmuth. Today was no exception. Phil came in with his typical manner of going around the table and shaking everyone’s hand and letting them know that “The Man” had arrived.
Mike Matusow was wired for sound on this Day 1b. First he went into a little monologue regarding the crowd hanging around the rail. He mentioned that “There’s more people in that square than Sarah Palin was ever governor of in that little town of hers in Arkansas. Or Alaska or whatever.” Later he gave a clue regarding why he is always so wired. He said that is was coffee. Apparently the caffeine gets to him. He said, “I went from sleeping to can’t shut up.”
Jennifer Tilly and Marcus Golser were among the first big names to exit early in today’s field. Golser pushed with the powerhouse hand 8c-2d. Unfortunately, a player woke up with the “mediocre hand” A-A. The flop did come with an 8 on it, but the rest of the board bricked out and Golser hit the rail. Tilly exited much quieter and we didn’t get details on the bustout. I must say that I cannot see how she can afford to keep playing these events. After watching her play at the World Series at different times, one has to wonder who the money pit she is tapping to keep being bought into these events. Before you say Phil Laak, remember that he isn’t doing much better either. At least Laak cashed twice at the WSOP this year. Tilly was 0 for whatever.
Just before the end of the third level, both Phil Hellmuth and Annette Obrestad were eliminated. Hellmuth was all-in on a flop of 6h-8h-Qh. He held Ah-Ad, but unfortunately his opponent held Qc-Qd. As irony would have it, Hellmuth had 11 outs to win the hand. (11 is the number of bracelets Hellmuth holds.) The turn fell the 3d, which reduced his outs to 10. The river fell the 6d, which completed his opponent’s full house and sent Hellmuth packing. Annette Obrestad was all in on the turn with a pair and a flush draw, facing two players with better pairs. She was unable to neither pair her kick nor catch her flush, and her day is done.
Topics from politics to religion were discussed at today’s event. Mike Matusow and Robert Williamson III were discussing politics and Williamson said “Biden sucks . . . He’s old! He’s almost as old as McCain. That’s the only one out of the four I don’t like.” For those of you that are reading overseas, Biden is the vice-presidential candidate of John McCain in the US presidential election. Mike Matusow later on mentioned that he knew the reason why Jerry Yang won the Main Even in 2007. He said, “The reason Jerry Yang won the World Series was because he prayed harder than everyone else.”
Sadly, Mike Matusow was eliminated during level 5 of today’s event. Mike Matusow was all-in preflop and called by Costas Artemi. Matusow held pocket kings and his opponent held Ad-Kd. The flop hit neither player, but the turn produced an ace that put Artemi ahead. Matusow did not catch a miracle two outer on the river and the tournament area became significantly quieter after the hand.
In a “hand” that should have brought back great memories, the dealer at John Phan’s dealer dealt out a flop before dealing any cards to the players. Phan was greatly amused by this. David Williams at an adjoining table asked “You moved in, right?” For those of you that don’t know, during the $3,000 No Limit final table at the World Series of Poker in Vegas, John Phan and his heads up opponent moved all in blind three times in a row. The flop, turn, and river were all dealt before they turned up their cards one at a time.
The eighth and final level of the night saw the departure of Allen Cunningham. Cunningham tried to make a move from the button, pushing all in with 9d-2d. Jerome Bradpiece made the call with As-Qd. The board missed both players and Cunningham’s tournament is over.
John Phan had a roller coaster day. At one point he was around 50,000 in chips but slowly bled off chips throughout the evening. Finally in the last level, he was all in with As-Qs. Unfortunately, he was against Ks-Kd. The board missed both players and Phan had to get off the ride.
David Williams and Jean-Robert Bellande were the last two big names eliminated in the last level of play. Bellande pushed from the small blind holding 9h-8h. The big blind called with Kh-7s. The flop came with two hearts, giving Bellande hope. A king on the turn left Bellande needing a heart to win. The river fell the Ad, and Bellande was off to watch Survivor reruns. David Williams moved all in preflop with Ac-5d but ran into the pocket queens of Andy Black. The turn produced a gutshot wheel draw for Williams, but neither an ace nor a five fell on the river and Williams was gone.
48 players survived today’s Day 1b and will join the 41 player from yesterday tomorrow for Day 2. Phil Laak, Andy Bloch, and Andy Black all survived with decent stacks. Adam Junglen emerged as the chip leader, with 83,600 in chips. Junglen will enter Day 3 as the overall chip leader.
Day 2 will begin tomorrow at 1 p.m. London Time. The 90 player field will then play down to the final table.
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