No, this is not the Alec Baldwin that seems to have everything go his way, but another Baldwin that is making a huge impact on the poker world. Eric Baldwin is no stranger to cashing at WSOP and Circuit Tour events, but he is a stranger to the big money. His lifetime earnings to this point for 6 cashes is just over $100,000. That number went up a little in early hours of Friday morning and his life will never be the same because of it. The money, the bracelet and surely online fame await the youngster.
This was one of the rare times that we have seen two legitimate hands decide a No Limit tourney late in the night. Baldwin had raised to make it 165,000 from the button. Klausen immediately threw his chips in the middle and Baldwin took little time to make the all in call. Baldwin turned over 1010, but Klausen was only 40-60 underdog with AhQh. A flop of 6JK gave Klausen two more outs as he could now hit a straight, but the turn showed another 6 and he was back to only 6 outs as a 10 would now give Baldwin the boat. A 5s fell harmlessly and it was time to celebrate for Baldwin. Klausen will take home $322,371 for second place.
In other tournaments…
Event 35 continues its road to a final table and now has 11 players left. It seemed like every time someone went all in, they were behind and cracked the larger hand. Sorel Mizzi leads the way with 969,000 and the bulk of the chips are sitting in the top 3 positions. It will be interesting to see if the cards change or the survival rate continues and frustrates the big stacks once play resumes.
Event 36 started with 1695 and ended the day with only 213 players remaining. Your chip leader is Corwin Cole with 185,700 in chips. As you look down the remaining field, you are hard pressed to find any names of significance. No Bonus points for you fantasy poker players in this tournament. It looks like another first timer will get a bracelet and over $500,000 to start off their new career in poker.
If you want to know where all the big names are, all you have to do is look over at the World Championship 7 Card Stud Hi/Low 8 or better tournament. The pattern this year seems to be that the pros are letting the smaller no limit poker events go and sticking to the higher buy ins and the other poker versions because of the much smaller fields. Why should they go through a 2,000 person land mine infested field when they can fight it out against only 200 players in these other games.
This field was no different as only 164 put up the $10,000 for Event 37 and we once again see Jeff Lisandro at the top of the leader board after the first day. He is not the overall leader, but he has a very healthy 110,000 in his stack. There were only 54 eliminations in the first day, but the blinds are up and there are plenty of small stacks that will see early action in day 2.
Well, if you are going to cash, you might as well make it a big one and Mike Eise did exactly that by bursting into the World Series of Poker stats with a huge $639,331 first place win in Event 28. The unknown player was in a groove from day one as he ousted seasoned veterans Amarillo Slim and JC Tran. He continued on his ways right up and through the final table. If destiny has a child, Mike Eise was it on this day.
The final hand of the tournament had Eise on button and doubling the blinds. Chang called the small raise to see a flop of 3c6d3s. Chang checked it down, but Eise stayed aggressive and moved all his chips to the middle of the table. Chang immediately called and everyone thought he was sitting on a monster, but he only turned over AhJd. Eise did not have anything either, but he hid have two live cards with his 8h7d. When the dealer turned a 7h and the room full of Eise supporters let out a roar that would have made a football crowd happy. The river was a harmless 5s and Eise Wins. Change would receive $392,494 for second place.
In other tournaments…
The Heads-Up Championship reached its final table after the shocking upset of Johnny Chen. He had his opponent dead to rights and all in and somehow he managed to hit a 3 outer. From that point on, it was all downhill. While he still had a huge chip lead at this point, momentum was clearly shifting. He had his opponent all in again with the best of it and lost not only the hand, but the chip lead as well. He never saw the better of it again and was soon out of the tournament falling short of his quest for an 11th bracelet.
The final table was reached in Event 30 and while John Juanda is still alive, he is the short stack at the table with only 129,000 left in his stack. JC Tran is also alive with 387,000, but the overall chip leader is Ross Boatman with 718,000 in his stack.
The H.O.R.S.E. event failed to get down to a final table and still has a rather large field of 23 players remaining. With this being a limit event, these players are coming back early and better dig in for a marathon session. This one will end in the wee hours of the morning. The overall leader is Fabrice Soulier with 351,000, but Shannon Shore is hot on his heels with 323,500.
Event 32 has shrunk from its initial 1534 person field down to 261 and should continue down to the final table today. However, if it follows the recent trend of tables slowing down dramatically on day 2, we could see another long session for the eventual champion. The bubble on this one is 171 player and we should see that fairly early in day 2.
The World Championship of Limit Hold’em did not even come close to where they needed to be. With only 185 players starting, they still have 157 left in the field. These late starting tournaments are creating very long day 2 and day 3’s for the field. This is something they are going to have to look at next year and possibly get these going a little earlier. Notable players that have already been felted are Jeff Lisandro, Gabe Kaplan, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow and Gavin Smith. Jennifer Harman is the day one leader with 127,600 in chips.
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!
Marc Goodwin was the next player eliminated in this event as he was all in on sixth street against Mark Gregorich. At showdown Gregorich showed 5h-10d-4c-10s-10h-5d-6s for tens-full. Goodwin had four to broadway showing on the board and only showed a deuce as one of his hole cards. He was apparently drawing dead on seventh, and Goodwin is off to collect his £4,812 prize.
Daniel Negraneu was sitting short stacked after a hand against Howard Lederer in a limit holdem round. With a board of 9h-2h-Qs-Jc-Qc, Lederer bet out and Negreanu had to fold. Negreanu was left with only 18,000 in chips. Lederer moved up to 107,000 chips, which was second overall.
The best poker player alive, Phil Ivey, continued to show his dominance in this event. With 14 players left, he was sitting with 124,300 in chips. Jeff Lisandro, winner of the $2,000 Stud Event at the 2007 WSOP was sitting third at 102,000 chips.
Spencer Lawrence has been on a tear in limit events at this year’s World Series of Poker. He had three cashes and two final tables. He finished 2nd in $1,500 Omaha 8 or better event and then 6th in the Limit Holdem Shootout. I was on hand to watch both performances. His other cash was in the $10,000 Limit Holdem Championship where he finished 22nd. Regardless of where he finishes in the event, he is proving himself to be one of the most prolific limit poker players in the world.
Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey got into a raising war on a flop of 7s-9d-6h. When the smoke cleared, Negreanu was all in and showed As-6s-2d-6c for a nut low draw and a set of sixes. Ivey showed 10d-7c-2s-8s for the flopped straight and weak low draw. The turn fell the 2h, counterfeiting Negreanu’s nut low draw, but leaving him a weak low draw. The king of diamonds on the river ended Negreanu’s quest for a bracelet and made him our 14th place finisher.
Mark Gregorich doubled up twice in a row during a stud round against Phil Hellmuth. First he made an eight against Hellmuth’s jack. The very next hand, he was able to secure another double up and move up to 50,000 chips. Hellmuth had been complaining earlier about the dealer’s shuffling habits and continued to do so after these back to back losses.
The Tournament Directors went around and talked to all the players about putting an early end to the event as it appeared that we were nowhere near making the final 8. It was decided that play would conclude at the end of level 13.
Hellmuth’s attacks on the dealer ended up getting out of hand. At one point, he made the dealer cry. The tournament director came over and explained to her that it is not her fault that he is losing. The dealer was so upset that the TD told him that he would receive a penalty if his behavior did not improve.
Phil Ivey put Isaac Haxton all-in during a holdem round. Unfortunately for Haxton, Ivey came out on top. Haxton becomes our 13th place finisher taking home £5,500.
I don’t know if you are a believer in Karma, but sometimes things happen that has to make us wonder. For example, in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, Prahlad Friedman accused Jeffrey Lisandro of stealing an ante chip during the Main Event. This ended up becoming a big issue when he continued to berate Lisandro for over an hour regarding the “ante theft.” Finally, the Tournament Director had to get involved to restore order. It was later discovered that Lisandro did not steal the ante, but Friedman never apologized. Since that event, Friedman has not been heard of on the tournament scene. He has not cashed in an event in over 2 years. Lisandro on the other hand has had 9 cashes at the WSOP, including 3 final tables and one bracelet. He also finished 2nd in the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Race. The game he won the bracelet in was 7 Card Stud. In stud, you must ante before each hand.
What does the above have to do with this event? Preflop during a holdem round, Phil Hellmuth angrily threw his chips in announcing all-in. Since this was a limit event, this was actually just a raise. Sherkhan Farnood raised enough to cover Hellmuth and they were off to the races. Just to give you a little background, Farnood had won a few pots earlier in the day and Hellmuth had berated him as being the “worst player in history.”
Hellmuth held As-Kh and Farnood held 3h-3c. The flop came Jd-Qh-Kd to give Hellmuth top pair and a straight draw. The turn fell the 5d. Only two cards in the deck could come to give Farnood the win. The river fell the 3d, giving Farnood a set of threes and eliminated Hellmuth from the event. Hellmuth stormed off to complain about Farnood, the dealer, and anything that folks would listen to him complain about. How much you want to bet that Farnood is the dealer’s new best friend.
Howard Lederer made a late day push and is our current chip leader with 208,500 chips. After his suckout against Phil Hellmuth, Sherkhan Farnood is right behind him with 141,500 chips. Phil Ivey is sitting in fourth position with 114,000. Spencer Lawrence is the middle of the pack with 88,500. Raul Paez is our short stack at the moment with 17,500. With the limits about to go up to 4,000 – 8,000, he is left with just over two big bets.
The final 11 players will return tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. and play until we reach our champion. Also, the £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event starts tomorrow. The best Omaha players from both the U.S. and Europe will gather to take their shot at the bracelet. PLO is the most popular form of poker in Europe, so the Americans will have a disadvantage in tomorrows contest. Play for that event starts at 3 p.m. London time.
Day 2 of the £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. started with 110 players trying to make their way to the final table. The field is still overrun with pro players. Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Patrik Antonius, Andy Bloch, Gus Hansen, Robert Williamson III, John Juanda, Joe Beevers, Barny Boatman, David Williams, Max Pescatori, Jeff Lisandro, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Howard Lederer are among the names that are still in contention.
Barry Greenstein was the first casualty of the day. Shortly after the beginning of play, Greenstein was all in with A-10 against John Phan’s A-9. Phan caught a nine on the flop, and Greenstein was left hoping to catch one of the remaining 10’s. A ten did not arrive and Phan now has a copy of Ace on the River.
Bruno Fitoussi busted out shortly afterwards in an Omaha 8 round when his pair of kings were no match for Bruce Yamron’s sixes and fives. Fitoussi was the runner-up in the 2007 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the World Series of Poker. Freddy Deeb was the winner of the event.
Phil Hellmuth has received a tough table draw for this Day 2. His opponents include Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Mark Gregorich, Sherkhan Farnood, and Gary Jones. Gus Hansen started razzing Phil when he asked Howard Lederer if Phil was the 7th or 8th best player at the table. Lederer would not respond, but Hellmuth mentioned that he had only played 5 hands to that point.
Jean-Robert Bellande was voted off the island in a stud round when his queens ran into Ivo Donev’s kings up. Brandon Cantu was out shortly afterwards. In a holdem round with a flop of 8d-4h-3d, Cantu bet out and was raised by Yuval Bronshtein. This was enough to put Cantu all-in. Bronshtein showed 8s-8c for a set and Cantu showed Qh-Jc. Cantu needed running straight cards to win, but they did not come and Cantu hit the rail.
Sadly a few hands later saw the end to one of the more entertaining players, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow. In a holdem hand against Gus Hansen, Matsow called bets from Hansen all the way to the river, where he was all in. The board showed Jd-Js-Jc-Ks-Qc when Hansen tabled pocket threes for a full house. Matusow only held ace high and was gone.
John Phan was involved in a three way pot that included Max Pescatori and Raul Paez. On a flop of Qs-Kh-5h, Phan bet out the last of his stack and was called by both opponents. Pescatori bet both the turn of the 3d and the river of the 6d. At showdown, Pescatori showed Ad-Kc-5c-3c for two pair, Paez showed As-3h-4c-Jc for the low, and Phan showed Ah-Jd-7h-6s, for a pair and a weaker low. As a result, Phan is eliminated from this H.O.R.S.E. event.
As we began to approach the bubble, Andy Bloch was all in during a holdem round. He had hit a pair of sevens on the flop, but John Juanda he flopped a pair of kings. Neither player improved and Bloch was eliminated from today’s event. Bloch was the runner up of the first ever $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the World Series of Poker. He came up on the short end of the marathon heads-up match with the late Chip Reese.
The two Phil’s have been tangling a bit today. First, Ivey sucked out on a hand against Hellmuth when he caught a queen on seventh in a stud round. The very next hand, Ivey caught a straight flush in five cards to move his chips up to 100,000. Then, a few hands later, David Williams completed showing (X-X) 4c. Ivey raised showing (X-X) Jc and Hellmuth called showing (X-X) Ad. Williams followed along.
Ivey bet out on fourth and fifth, with Williams folding on fourth and Hellmuth calling along. Hellmuth then bet out on sixth showing (X-X) Ad-Qs-6c-5h. Ivey raised showing a board of (X-X) Jc-7s-Kh-4d. Hellmuth three-bet and Ivey made the call. At showdown, Hellmuth showed a bluff and Ivey showed a pair of kings to take another big pot off of Hellmuth.
Howard Lederer has been the biggest surprise of this Day 2 thus far. He has been near the chip lead a good portion of the day. In one hand in a stud round, Lederer was able to eliminate both Gus Hansen and Barny Boatman with kings up. After the hand he was up to 85,000 but moved up to around 100,000 not long afterwards.
As we got closer to the bubble, both John Juanda and Robert Williamson III were eliminated. Both were eliminated during a stud 8 round. Joe Beevers finished in 18th place when his 7-6 low in razz ran into a perfect 6 of Jeff Lisandro.
Max Pescatori ended up being the bubble boy for this event. In a hand against Sherkhan Farnood, Pescatori was all in on Sixth Street showing Ah-5d-2h-8h-3s-7d for a wheel draw and a seven low. Farnood showed 4h-6d-8s-5c-As-7s for an eight high straight and a weaker seven low. A 3h on the river gave Farnood a seven high straight and a six low. Pascatori did not catch a four and he was eliminated.
David Williams was the first player to make the money with a 16th place finish. In an Omaha 8 round, with the flop showing 10c-3h-Kd, Yuval Bronshtein bet out 2,000 and Raul Paez raised to 4,000. Williams made the call and Bronshtein three bet to 6,000. Williams four bet but only for a few hundred more. Both opponents made the call. The turn of the 10s fell and Bronshtein bet out 4,000. Paez made the call. At showdown Bronstein showed 10d-3c-2h-5h for tens full. Paez flashed pocket threes for a weaker full house and Williams mucked his hand. He then went and collected his £4,812 for his finish.
Play will continue until we reach a final table. Of course, Harrah’s has been known to make strange decisions regarding ending tournaments early. The rest of today’s coverage will conclude in the next post.
