While we continue to see no name players dominate the small buy in events, the World Championship events and larger buy ins continue to be the professionals playground. While there are some amateurs getting into them, they are not lasting as long because of the talent factor. When they sit down at one of these tables, the ratio of pros to amateurs is about even. This means that not as many people have a target on the pros heads and they are absolutely dominated these events.
Matt Graham took down the Pot Limit Omaha Championship in grand form and dominated the last day of play. He was up against 25 world class players and came out on top. He ended up winning $679,379 and his second WSOP bracelet. In order to do so, he had to take down Vitaly Lunkin who is proving to be quite the force in the poker world. If you have not been watching the live feeds, you have no idea what you are missing. This was one of the most exciting final tables yet.
Ray Foley also took home a bracelet on Monday Night in the $1,500 No Limit event. Another huge field of 2715 started out and after three very long days, Foley was the last man standing. This tournament was one of the longest so far in regards to how many hours they played every day. This was definitely a good training ground for how these guys will hold up during the Main Event. Foley took down a first place prize of $657,787 for his first bracelet win.
In other tournaments…
2 of the biggest players in the game did not make it past the final elimination day of the NL Hold’em Shootout event. Jennifer Harman went out in the first round of the day and while Phil Ivey last longer, he did not satisfy his quest to get his third bracelet of this WSOP. 5 players remain and all will start the day off with 900,000 in chips.
The Mixed Hold’em event is always an entertaining one as it tests the skills in both varieties of hold’em. The winner of this event can truly call themselves one of the best poker players in the world as not many people can manage the nuances of both games at the same time. Jon Turner is the current chip leader with 469,200 in chips.
Event 44 was the late starting tournament and they have barely made a dent in this field. Limit events are always tough in the early stages, but as those blinds fly, so do the players to the rail. While there are not very many familiar names at the top of the leader board right now, expect that to change with this specialty version of 7 card stud. Warwick Mirzikinian is the current leader with 59,400 in chips.
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.
His internet reputation had preceded him, but now there is no doubt that Brock Parker is the real deal. Just a few short days ago the quiet and seemingly emotionless young man surprised Daniel Negreanu by overcoming a huge chip deficit and defeating him in heads up play. Once again, Brock was at it on a shorthanded table, this time in No Limit, proving that his internet prowess has transferred over nicely to the live felt.
Parker and Serock had a great heads up battle, but when the pots were big, Parker was the one that was holding onto the winning hand. This was pretty much the same thing that happened in Event 14 as he didn’t want all the hands, but he won the ones that shifted the chips. Here is the recap of the final hand.
Brock had just won a big hand and had Serock on the ropes. Serock was on the button and raised it to 200,000. Brock came right back over top of him to make it 1,000,000 and Serock pushed all in. Brock made the immediate call and turned over QQ to Serock’s 1010. The board came out 7sAs2cKc and a Qc on the river just added insult to injury. Brock takes down the tournament, the bracelet and a huge payday of $552,745.00. Serock will get $341,783.00 for second place.
In other tournaments…
Event 20, $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha, has finally achieved their final table. Someone that we have not heard much from lately in the world of poker is still alive in this and the res t of the table better watch out. Eric Seidel is sitting in third place with about as much as the leader, but he is easily the best player left at this table. The players will pick it up at 2:00pm on Thursday to decide the bracelet winner. Here is your final table:
John-Paul Kelly – 627,000 Jason Dewitt – 476,000 Eric Seidel – 337,000 Kyle Carlston – 320,000 Marc Tschirch – 268,000 Andrew Radel – 250,000 Kirk Steward – 231,000 Aaron Virchis – 191,000 Ravi Raghavan – 145,000
The $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event still has 21 players remaining and Gavin Smith (121,000) is still alive, but far down the board. The leader at the end of the day was Zac Fellows (471,000). These guys have a long day ahead of them as they will play till they have a winner on Thursday. There are coming back a little earlier to get it going and will start play at 1:00pm.
Event 22, the $1,500 NL Hold’em Shootout was a pure bloodbath with 900 of the 1,000 entrants hitting the rail on day one. Day 2 will start with 10 tables and everyone is at 45,000. If you are unfamiliar with how the shootouts work, they must play down to a winner at each table before the next round wins. Once this round is over, we will have our final table and everyone will have 450,000 in chips when they start play.
Event 23, the World Championship NL 2-7 Draw Lowball has also gotten underway and it is packed with pros. Featuring the smallest field of any event, only 96 players, everyone wanted in for a bracelet shot. There are still 60 players remaining and they should have no problems making a quick day of it down to the final table. Roland de Wolfe leads the way with 180,300 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!
While we continue to see no name players dominate the small buy in events, the World Championship events and larger buy ins continue to be the professionals playground. While there are some amateurs getting into them, they are not lasting as long because of the talent factor. When they sit down at one of these tables, the ratio of pros to amateurs is about even. This means that not as many people have a target on the pros heads and they are absolutely dominated these events.
