Posted by James on November 14, 2008
Heads-up play for the World Series of Poker Main Event started Monday night at 10 p.m. Pacific Time. According to Barry Greenstein, the decision to start at 10 p.m. was to keep various media sources from being able to print the winner of the Main Event in their morning editions.
Peter Eastgate entered heads up play with 79.5 Million in chips. Ivan Demidov started play with 57.725 Million. The very first hand was potentially explosive and ended a little odd. The board by the river showed K-10-10-K-K to put a full house on board. Demidov then made a bet of around 8 Million and Eastgate went into the tank. Many players expected Eastgate to call in this spot. Chris “Jesus” Ferguson said later that he would have even raised it 12 Million. Eastgate shocked everyone when he ended up folding his hand and giving the pot to Demidov. Later on it would be revealed by Demidov in an interview that he indeed had the case king in his hand and Eastgate made an amazing laydown. Demidov continued to apply the pressure early on and took the chip lead in hand 12 of heads up play after making two pair on the river. He had nearly a 9 million chip lead at that point.
It would be the last chip lead that Demidov would hold during the main event. Eastgate won several pots afterwards to take back the chip leads and move up to around 75 Million in chips. Demidov was set to take back the chip lead in hand 33. On a flop of 5d-7h-4d, Demidov raised the action to 3.375 Million in chips. Eastgate called and an 8h fell on the turn. Demidov would then check-raise a bet from Eastgate to 14 Million total. Eastgate would make the call. The 3d fell on the river and both players checked, fearing the flush. Demidov showed 6c-8c. He had flopped the straight. Unfortunately for him, Eastgate turned over 4c-6h. The turn had given Eastgate the same straight, and the players wound up chopping the pot.
Eastgate would extend his chip lead in hand 35. After a raised to 2.8 Million preflop, both players saw a flop of Ad-3s-Jh. Both players checked and the Jd fell on the turn. Eastgate would be out 2.5 Million on the turn and was called. The river came the Qc and Eastgate bet out 6.9 Million. Demidov insta-called and players thought he might have a big hand. Eastgate turned over Ac-Qh for top two pair. Demidov mucked his cards and Eastgate moved up to 86.65 Million. Demidov slipped to 50 Million.
Four hands later, Demidov took another blow to his stack. Eastgate called a raise of 2.75 Million and both players saw the flop of 9h-7s-6d. Demidov bet 3.625 Million and was called. Action was checked around on the turn of the Jh. The Qs fell on the river and Demidov bet 7 Million. Eastgate insta-called and showed Js-8s for a pair of jacks. Demidov was caught bluffing and was only holding ace high. Eastgate took in the 26.95 Million pot and moved up to 100 Million. Devidov slipped to around 36.275 Million.
Demidov would slip down to as low as 29.725 Million in chips before making a bit of a comeback. He began to apply pressure a lot on Eastgate again with a lot of min-raises pre-flop. A couple of key re-raises pre-flop also helped Demidov rebuild his stack. He was able to rebound to around 52 Million. At this point it seemed that Demidov had retaken the momentum in the event.
Hand 98 wound up being another huge hand between the two. After another min-raise preflop, Eastgate made the call and both player saw the flop of Kd-10d-7c. The flop was checked around and the turn fell the Jd. Eastgate bet 2.5 Million and Demidov came over the top to make it 8 Million. Eastgate called and the river fell the 3s. Eastgate checked to Demidov and he bet out 12 Million. Eastgate snap-called and flipped over 7d-4d for the flush. Demidov mucked his cards and Eastgate moved up to 106 Million in chips. Demidov slipped to 30 Million.
At this point, it seemed that Demidov had nearly conceded defeat as he slipped under 20 Million in hand 104. The very next hand would be the final hand of the event. Eastgate limped in and Demidov would check his option pre-flop. The flop came Ks-3h-2d and Eastgate bet out 1.25 Million. Demidov made the call and the turn fell the 4c. Eastgate bet out 2 Million and Demidov raised to 6 Million. Eastgate called and the river fell the 7s. Demidov pushed all-in and Eastgate insta-called. Demidov showed 4h-2h for two pair and Eastgate showed Ad-5s for the wheel and the win. With that hand, Peter Eastgate became the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event champion.
Eastgate showed very little emotion when the final hand was shown. He stood up, walk away from the table, and then was mobbed by his fans. He then began to smile a bit as realization set in that he had just won the most coveted prize in poker. Also, Eastgate’s win makes him the youngest Main Event champion in history, a title formerly held by Phil Hellmuth.
And just like that, the 2008 World Series of Poker concludes. It all started back in May when players from all around the world came to the Rio in Las Vegas to chase a dream of winning a bracelet. After 6 weeks of events, the Main Event started with 6844 players. After many grueling days and then a four month wait, we finally played out the final table until Peter Eastgate emerged as the newest World Champion. Congratulations to Peter Eastgate, the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion!
Whether you loved or hated the idea of the final table delay, it looked as if the end result was just what Harrah’s and ESPN wanted. No announcement has been made about next year’s Main Event, but don’t be surprised if we have another “November Nine” in 2009.
Posted by James on November 10, 2008
Sunday was the day. The “November Nine” finally reconvened to play out the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event. The crowd was massive and play was held in the Penn & Teller Theatre at the Rio. Dennis Phillips flew in around 300 supporters, all dressed like him, complete with St Louis Cardinals caps. Each player had their own entourage to support them at this epic final.
Jack Effel opened the festivities and finally the cards were in the air. Kelly Kim was the short stack of the tournament and actually played the very first hand, which happened to be from the button. He won the hand, and then was relatively quiet until he was nearly blinded down to nothing. His stack got down to less than 1 Million and Ivan Demidov put him all in. Amazingly, Kim woke up with pocket kings in the big blind and called. The kings held up and he had a few more waiting chips. And wait he did. Kim only seemed to have one goal, and that was to finish in at least 8th place.
Dennis Phillips lost most of his stack in the early going when a couple of well timed re-raises from both Ivan Demidov and Ylon Schwartz forced him to fold big pots. At one point he was the 2nd short stack with just under 5 Million chips. He was able to claw his way back up.
Craig Marquis then became the short stack and was all-in pre-flop. Scott Montgomery made the call with A-Q. Marquis held pocket sevens. The flop would come A-10-7 to give Marquis a set and leave Montgomery drawing thing. However, in poker, even the smallest percentages can win. Montgomery was able to catch a Jack on the turn to give him a gutshot straight draw and then he caught the miracle card on the river when a King fell to give him the straight and eliminate Marquis in 9th place. Marquis will receive no additional money as all players were paid out 9th place money in July.
Kelly Kim was the next player eliminated. As expected, he moved all in and received multiple callers. In the end, Darus Suharto had a pair of nines to beat Kim’s fours and Kim finished in 8th place and took home $1,288,217.
Chino Rheem could never get anything going and was finally all in with A-K against Peter Eastgate’s A-Q. Unfortunately for Chino, Eastgate would spike a queen on the flop and the pair of queens would hold. Rheem finished in 7th place, making $1,772,650.
Players went on dinner break and came back to watch both Dewey Tomko and Henry Orenstein inducted into the Professional Poker Hall of Fame. Action was somewhat slow for a while after dinner until Darus Suharto decided to move all-in over the top of a raise from Scott Montgomery. Montgomery finally made the call after tanking a while. Montgomery held As-Qd and Suharto held Ah-8c. The flop would fall all spades to give Montgomery the nut flush draw and the turn would complete Montgomery’s flush. Darus Suharto would take home $2,418,562 for his strong finish at the WSOP Main Event.
A huge pot would then develop between Ivan Demidov and Scott Montgomery. Pre-flop, Demidov would come over the top of a raise from Montgomery to make it 4.025 Million to go. Montgomery would then decide to move all-in and Demidov insta-called. Demidov held pocket Kings and Montgomery had only Ad-9d. Amazingly the flop fell with two diamonds to give Montgomery the nut flush draw. The turn and river both missed Montgomery and Demidov doubled up through Montgomery to over 51 Million in chips. Scott Montgomery was left with only 6 Million.
Four hands later, Montgomery was all in with Ad-3d against the pocket sixes of Peter Eastgate. An ace would hit the flop to put Montgomery in the lead. An ace would also hit the turn, leaving Eastgate needing a six. Someone mentioned that they had folded a six, so there was only one six left in the deck. Amazingly, the case six in the deck hit the river to give Peter Eastgate the full house. Scott Montgomery finished in 5th place for $3,096,768.
Hand 154 of the event saw the elimination of Ylon Schwartz. On the turn, the board read 2s-Kh-8h-Kd. Peter Eastgate bet 1.75 Million and was called by Schwartz. The river fell the 5d and Eastgate bet 4.6 Million. Schwartz then moved all-in for 20.775 Million. Eastgate went into the tank for a very long time contemplating a call. He finally made the call and Schwartz told him “Good Hand” as he showed A-10 for air. Eastgate showed pocket fives for fives full. Schwartz finished in fourth place. $3,774,974 would be his prize for fourth.
It didn’t take long after that to get down to heads up. Peter Eastgate made it 1.5 Million to go pre-flop of hand 168 and Dennis Phillips called. The flop fell Jc-3s-4d. Eastgate then made a bet of 1.5 Million. Phillips then came over the top all in for 16.8 Million and Eastgate snap called. Eastgate had flopped a set with pocket threes and Phillips had 10-9 for nothing but a backdoor straight draw. An Ace fell on the turn, leaving Phillips drawing dead and as the third place finisher. The man who started the day as chip leader finished in 3rd and took home $4,517,773.
The final two that will return Monday night at 10 p.m. Pacific are Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov. Eastgate has the chip lead with 82,585,000 and Demidov has 54 Million. Eastgate has the lead, but Demidov has the experience, making the final table of the WSOP-E. It should be a great heads-up match to determine the 2008 WSOP Main Event Champion.
Posted by James on September 11, 2008
The 2008 World Series of Poker will be known as the “Year of the Pro.” Many pros won bracelet at this years with one winning his first two bracelets. Below are the top five moments from the 2008 WSOP preliminary events.
#5: Mike Matusow Wins Third Bracelet
The final table of the NL 2-7 Lowball with Rebuys event was one of the strongest in World Series of Poker history. Jeffrey Lisandro, Tony G, Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren, Tom Schneider, and Mike Matusow played a final table that went well into the night. Play was up and down all night for Matusow but in the end Matusow was able to outlast Jeffrey Lisandro and take his third World Series of Poker bracelet. For his win, Matusow took home $537,862.
#4: David Benyamine Wins First Bracelet
The final table of the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low World Championship included several top pros. Tony Ma, Mike Matusow, David Benyamine, David Chiu, Toto Leonidas, Ram Vaswani, and Berry Johnston all were vying for the top honors. Mike Matusow was trying for his second bracelet of the series and made things interesting. In the end David Benyamine weaved his way through the field, taking pots along the way and keeping his stack healthy. Once Mike Matusow was eliminated, Benyamine’s experience took over and by the time play was three handed, Benyamine had around 70% of the chips. Heads-Up play was almost a formality as Benyamine continued to hammer and outdraw his opponent to finally secure his first bracelet. Benyamine took home $535,687 for his win.
#3: Erick Lindgren Finally Breaks Through
Up until 2008, Erick Lindgren was considered the greatest poker player to not have a World Series of Poker bracelet. Lindgren finally shed that title in 2008 when he bested an all star field to take the $5,000 Mixed Holdem event. Lindgren took his first bracelet and the top prize of $374,505. In addition, Lindgren also finished 4th in the NL 2-7 Lowball event and finished 3rd in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. He had five total cashes for the World Series of Poker and won the Player of the Year Award.
#2: John “Razor” Phan wins two bracelets.
In a heads-up match that saw three hands played “all-in blind”, John Phan emerged with his first bracelet in the $3,000 NL Holdem event. The win netted him $434,789. A few days later, Phan won the 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event for a prize of $151,911 and his second gold bracelet.
#1: Scotty Nguyen wins the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E Event.
The final table of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event again was a stacked field. Erick Lindgren, Scotty Nguyen, Michael DeMichelle, Matt Glantz, Lyle Berman, Huck Seed, Barry Greenstein, and Patrick Bueno came together after four days of play to try and make their place in history. After a long final table and a long heads up match with Michael DeMichelle, Scotty Nguyen emerged as the winner of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. This was Nguyen’s fifth bracelet and ranks second to only his 1998 Main Event victory. For his win, Nguyen won the bracelet and $1,989,120.
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Heads-up play for the World Series of Poker Main Event started Monday night at 10 p.m. Pacific Time. According to Barry Greenstein, the decision to start at 10 p.m. was to keep various media sources from being able to print the winner of the Main Event in their morning editions. 
Demidov would slip down to as low as 29.725 Million in chips before making a bit of a comeback. He began to apply pressure a lot on Eastgate again with a lot of min-raises pre-flop. A couple of key re-raises pre-flop also helped Demidov rebuild his stack. He was able to rebound to around 52 Million. At this point it seemed that Demidov had retaken the momentum in the event.
And just like that, the 2008 World Series of Poker concludes. It all started back in May when players from all around the world came to the Rio in Las Vegas to chase a dream of winning a bracelet. After 6 weeks of events, the Main Event started with 6844 players. After many grueling days and then a four month wait, we finally played out the final table until Peter Eastgate emerged as the newest World Champion. Congratulations to Peter Eastgate, the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion!
