Most of tournaments have been going at it for at least 10 hours and we still have not had a bracelet winner crowned in any of the three events that are going for a championship tonight. The biggest tournament is obviously the $50k H.O.R.S.E Event. The field has been taken down to six and the fearless Russian has finally taken a small chip lead. Vitaly Lunkin is now sitting at 3,760,000. Huck Seed is also still alive and gradually climbing back into this thing. We stated earlier that Sagstrom was going to have a problem holding off this field and Lunkin is now in full overdrive.
The Triple Chance NL Hold’em Tourney also has 6 players remaining and Jorg Peisert has built a monster chip lead. He is currently holding 3,065,000 and is nearly 3:1 over second place. A lead like that is going to be very difficult to overcome unless the second or third place players catch him on an all in. He is playing very aggressively and that could happen, but it appears as though he is timing his aggression perfectly right now. This one should be fun to watch down to the end.
While there are only 2 players left in Event 53, we are still a long way from figuring out who is going to win this one. The chips are fairly even as William Kohler has 1,290,000 and David Halpern has 810,000. When you add in the fact that this is a hi/low game, they may be here longer than either of the other two tournaments.
Event 54 has about 40 players and with any luck, they will make it down to the final table tonight. That is probably wishful thinking, but you never know. Event 55 is also trucking along and has less than 40 players remaining. Triple draw can have some large pots, so you may still see a lot of railing going on. The one thing that could slow this down is the fact that they are very close to the bubble.
Jeff Lisandro is arguably having the best WSOP of any player in the field so far this season. The funniest thing is that he is doing it in every game other than NL Hold’em. His name is showing up regularly in just about every other game. He continued his dominance on Saturday night by taking down the World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi/Low 8 Event. He was among the leaders from day one and bided his time until they were heads up. For three and a half hours he battled with Farzas Rouhani who had the chip lead going in.
Doyle Brunson and Scotty Nguyen also made a nice run in this tournament and at one point, it looked like the possibility of 4 previous bracelet winners fighting it out. Scotty went card dead and Doyle slowly faded and went out in 7th position. This may have been his best shot of the WSOP for number 11 because we are now only 2 weeks away for the circus. The fields are starting to get larger and larger and the pros will continue to have trouble working their way through these humongous fields of amateurs that put targets on their heads the moment they see a pro seated next to them.
The other bracelet winner on the evening was Jordan Smith who outlasted 1694 other players to take down Event 36 and the $586,212 that goes along with it. At one point, this tournament seemed like it was never going to end as day 2 was just brutally slow. However, Jordan Smith stuck to his guns and continued to wear down the field until he has a massive cheap lead and the other player’s fates were sealed. This was his first bracelet, but he is no stranger to the WSOP with 12 other cashes to his credit.
In other tournaments…
At one point, it looked like there was no stopping Phil Hellmuth, but after making a humongous comeback and getting atop the leader board, the cards went the other way on his and he made his way to the rail. The played down to the final table on Saturday Night and will get back at it at 2pm to decide a winner. Marc Naalden is the current chip leader with 755,000 in his stack.
Day 2 of Event 39 will get under way with a lot of work to come before they see a final table. This was an amateur dominated field as most of the pros were eying up the Pot Limit Omaha Championship later in the evening. Mohsin Charania is the current chip leader with 144,100.
Event 40, the World Championship of Pot Limit Omaha got underway and as predicted, it was packed with all the superstars of poker. The leader board is littered with names like David Williams, Josh Arieh, Steve Zolotow and Barry Greenstein. Nate Lindsay currently leads the way with a huge chip lead of almost 200,000 over the second place player. He will start the day off with 482,200 and he is going to need every last one of them to fight off this hungry field of professionals.
One thing that you hear preached over and over again in no limit poker is that position is power. Every strategy that you can think of allows you to play more hands in position that you can early in the betting because of this very reason. To fully take advantage of your position, you need to know why it is so important.
Information is and always has been one of the major keys to success when you are playing No Limit. By picking up subtle tells, you can exploit a weaker opponent and take down hands that you have no right even playing in. Being in late position is much the same weapon. You can force the action against players who are on marginal hands and put them on a decision. This play works more than you think because of the sheer fact that you always have position on them.
Look at the scenario of the table folding around to the button and he merely doubles the blinds to get some action in the hand. Both players call because they more or less have the odds to do so. A flop of AK7 hits the board. SB is holding 710 and BB is holding K2. SB checks and the BB bets out a half pot sized bet. The button player comes right over the top and triples the bet. The SB folds and the action is on the BB. What do you do?
You are sitting on middle pair with absolutely no kicker. The action pretty much commits you to a large portion of your stack, but this player has been acting aggressively in that position all night long. It doesn’t matter, you still have to let the hand go because even if you do call him, you know he is going to make a huge bet on the turn. He may very well be sitting on a weak A and you are crushed in the hand. Regardless, he is the one forcing the action here and your hand strength is too weak to make this risky play.
The other very powerful aspect of being in late position is that you can play those weaker hands at just about any time. You are going to be getting odds for any draw and in actuality, the more people that are in the hand, the lower you want your cards to be. It may sound a little crazy, but you are much better off sitting on QJs on the button with 6 other players already in than you are AQ.
Think about the logic on this. If you have a bunch of players that are limping in from early position, you are probably looking at a bunch of weak A’s and middle pocket pairs. Uneducated players will go into almost any hand from any position with an A. Now here you are sitting on middle suited connectors. In most cases, your cards are going to be live and you are drawing to both a straight and a flush. All of high cards are probably out in the hands that are being played and you have a much better chance of hitting than anyone else in the pot.
When you are in position, you need to loosen up your game and play a much wider variety of hands when everyone is limping in or there was only a small raise in front of you. It isn’t going to cost you much to do this and when you hit, the payoffs will tend to be very large. You are going to need to hit about 1 out of every 9 or 10 of these to break even. After that, it is all profit.
One common theme throughout these multi-day tournaments is the frustration that you see start to show on players that are not mentally ready for the grind. Most players are used to their home games or the single day tournaments that they play at their local casinos. When they get into this kind of a field and have to play for 3 or 4 days, it starts to wear on them. The last day of Event #7 was proof positive of how that frustration can cost someone a tournament.
Steve Karp was in this poker tournament the whole way until the last few hours. Travis Johnson literally bullied his way to the bracelet as his aggressive play frustrated and wore down Karp. It became more noticeable in the last hour as Karp had seemed to have about enough of it and looked like he just wanted to go to bed. He got his wish and Johnson got the bracelet. Here is the final hand recap.
Karp had the button and limped in and Johnson immediately applied more pressure and pushed all in. Karp took no time at all to make the call. The cards were rolled and Karp had 55 to Johnson’s AQ. Karp managed to dodge the flop with K-10-4, but more outs had been added for Johnson. The Q in the turn but him behind to a 2 outer and the river J buried him.
In other tournaments….
We had already mentioned Phil Ivey’s win in our last post, but it definitely deserves another blurb. Ivey play phenomenally all night long and against a very good player and showed why always feared at a table. The only shame of it all was that he had already bought in for the $10,000 mixed event and did not get over there until very late and ended up busting out on the first day. I am sure the bracelet and the 7 figure side bet winning will help him get over that though. He said that he plans on taking a couple of days to get himself back together and then will be right back at it. Ivey seems poised to have a great series.
Event #9, the Six Handed $1,500 NL Hold’em event did not get to the final table, but they are pretty close. There are only 8 players left and play will resume today through to the bracelet winner. We think the two players to watch out for here are Peter Gould and Praz Bansi. They are both hurting a bit for chips here, but one good run and they can start to put some pressure on. Here is your chip count and standing for the day:
1) Charles Furey (1,690,000)
2) Bryce Yockey (1,489,000)
3) Carmen Cavella (1,059,000)
4) Peter Gould (780,000)
5) Bryn Kenney (656,000)
6) Praz Bansi (630,000)
7) Ken Aldridge (411,000)
8) Manny Minaya (339,000)
Event #10 concluded its second day with only 29 players remaining. The ever annoying Hevad Khan still has chips and we all know how lucky this guy can get. Daniel Makowsky has the chip lead and also some WSOP experience with a second place finish under his belt. Hopefully we will not have to endure the little rain dance that Khan has become so infamous for.
Event #11 finished day one in much the way the other tournaments have, by railing over 85% of field on the first day of play. This one started out a little slow and then it just took off as player after player was sent packing. The name to look out for here is the always dangerous Phil Hellmuth. He has chips and the money is sneaking up on the players. Chip counts were still up in the air on this one, but it would appear that one of the wonder kids is leading the pack as Scott Hall as about 140,000 in his stack.
All eyes are now on Event #12, the$10,000 World Championship Mixed Event. Play was a little slow as there is still about 60% of the field standing, but this was a late starting tournament and they did not have the full day to play. Already out are Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer and Mike Matusow. However, the story is the players that are atop the leader board. We are still loaded with some significant pros and Kid Poker leads the pack. Negreanu has a grip on the overall chip lead and it is hard to imagine him giving it up. It has been a while since he has had a strong showing in the WSOP and hopefully this can get him turned around. There is nothing better in poker than watching Kid Poker on a final table.
Two more events get kicked off today and all in all, we will have 6 tournaments going and hopefully 2 more bracelets getting awarded.
It took over 12 hours to finish the deed, but Freddie Ellis won the first World Championship Event of the 2009 WSOP by besting Eric Drache in Event #6. Ellis was perfect from day one and he had quite a few obstacles to get by in the process. If you play cards in Atlantic City and New York, you know the name. Now the world knows how Freddie Ellis is.
The final hand of the tournament, Drache found himself very short stacked and in deep trouble. The 100,000/200,000 blinds had all but gobbled up his stack and it was time for an all in. Drache raised on the river for his final couple of chips and that was all she wrote. Ellis finished the hand by hitting a flush and Ellis was sent to the rail. Ellis walks away with $373,751, a bracelet and the respect of every player that sat down at his tables. Other notable finishes were Max Pescatori (4th), Greg Mueller (7th), Jeffrey Lisandro (9th) and Daniel Negreanu (10th).
Event #8, the $2,500 Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball No Limit Event, was about as entertaining as it gets. In all likelihood, Ivey had more on side bets than he would win by taking down the bracelet, but he can’t collect unless he gets the jewelry. It was rumored that he stood to win more than $1,000,000 if he took down a tournament.
John Monnette was equal to the task and the two players went head to head for over three hours. At one point, Ivey was all but out and then made a huge run and it looked like the tournament was over as Ivey had over 900,000 of the 1,100,000 in chips. Then with two quick double ups, Monnette had Ivey on the ropes. It was Ground Hog Day all over again as within a few minutes, the situation was reversed and Ivey was back on top. After a few hands, the chip stacks evened back out and the player started trading blinds again for a bit.
The final hand finally happened about 3 and a half hours into heads up play. Monnette was on the button and made a raise when Ivey pushed everything into the middle of the table. Monnette never hesitated and everyone stood up in anticipation. Each player would be taking only one card on the draw. Ivey has holding 7-6-4-2 and Monnette held 9-7-5-2. Monnette was unlucky and drew a 7 to give him a pair and was now officially dead in the hand. Ivey turned over his 5 and the tournament was over.
Ivey now has 6 WSOP bracelets and not one of them is for a NL event. While Ivey is taking down $96,367 for his win, the real payday will come when he walks around the room and collects the money from all the side bets that are out there for a player to win a WSOP event. The will all more than likely ante up again, but Ivey has to feel good about this one.
In other tournaments…
Event #7 is at the final table, but we are still quite a ways from a winner. As of this posting, there are still 7 players remaining in the $1,500 No Limit Event. Craig McConville is currently the chip leader with 3,100,000.
Event #9, the 6 Handed $1,500 NL Hold’em Event is now down to 42 players. This one still has a long way to go with barely a recognizable name left in the field. There has been plenty of action and the number by the end of play today should have us pretty close to a final table.
Event #10, the $2,500 Pot Limit Mixed Game has players dropping like flies. As of this posting, there were only 36 player remaining in what appears to be one of the better fields for this deep in the tourney. A name we have not heard much from in recent times, David Sklansky is still hanging in but times are getting dire with only 32,000 left in his stack.
Event #11 started today and we have seen about half of the field walk away from the tables. The $2,000 NL Hold’em event is moving a bit slower than the bulk of the other tournaments, but the pace is still okay to hit the final table as scheduled. The story of the day in this tournament is Jason Mercier who is making an early bid for his second bracelet of the season.
The second World Championship event kicked off late tonight with the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event. Negreanu, who has already gone deep in the 7 Stud World Championship Event is playing great poker and catching cards. This is not good news for the rest of the field as there are few better when he is on his game. He is already at the top of the leader board and seems like he is a man possessed. We all know how aggressive he is and he is just as likely to continue his run as he is to be broke by the time the blinds get back to him. However, after last year’s showing, you would have to think he will play a little more conservative when he gets a big chip lead this time around. Forget that, its Kid Poker, full steam ahead!
