Tuesday Night is WSOP Poker Night on ESPN
Date: Tue, Jul 22, 2008
Are you ready for some poker? The first installment from the 2008 World Series of Poker premiers tonight on ESPN at 8 PM EST. Join hosts Norm Chad and Lon McEachern as they provide the running commentary for the first of 17 weeks of WSOP poker. That's over thirty hours from the most exciting poker tournament in the world, the WSOP.
Tonight's episode will feature the $10,000 Buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em World Championship from the Rio Resort in Las Vegas. A total of 352 players vying for a prize pool of $3,308,800 in this first event of the 2008 WSOP. Supplement tonights viewing experience with Dr. Pauly's final table recap of the event right here on the Poker Prof's Poker Blog.
Set up the laptop, grab some brews, surround yourself with snacks and settle in for an evening of poker from the 2008 WSOP. This is great training for the soon to be here 2008 NFL pre-season games. So, are you ready for some football...and poker, too? The 17 consecutive weeks of Tuesday night WSOP poker on ESPN will take us to the November 9 same day coverage of the 2008 Main Event final tablewhen the November Nine will be competing for more than $9 million.
November Nine...or Straight Eight?
Date: Sat, Jul 19, 2008
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, David "Chino" Rheem could be resolving an outstanding arrest warrant from Hollywood, Florida while the remaining eight 2008 Main Event finalist are vying for the $9 million. Rheem failed to show up in court for a misdemeanor trespassing charge from 2003. He also has prior felony convictions from Broward County Florida dating back 8 years.
So what does this have to do with the November final table? Nothing I hope. David Rheem is the early favorite to take it all and he is also the only recognizable player among the 2008 November Nine. Promoting this group will, at best, be difficult and to have David out would make it impossible..."Tune in November 9th to watch all the excitement of eight people you never heard of and aren't likely to hear from again going nose-to-nose for the title of World's Best Poker Player."
Following closely on the heels of the Tiffany Michele greed fest over the Poker News logos and the Ultimate Bet superuser cheating scam makes this latest revelation even more difficult to handle. Not exactly the publicity needed from the biggest spectacle in poker to provide a positive spin for the efforts to legalize online poker rooms. Does this mean next years WSOP entry form will come with a background check? Anyone want to venture an over/under on the number of felony convictions among this year's other 6,843 main event players?
APT Macau Online Qualifiers at Bodog
Date: Fri, Jul 18, 2008
Bodog is now awarding trips and seats to Macau to compete in the Asian Poker Tour. The APT is taking place from August 26 - 31 in the Vegas of East, Macau China.
Score one of Bodog's four seats and you'll receive the Main Event buy-in worth $5,300, flight expenses, six nights' accommodation in Macau and $500 in spending cash.
Qualifiers are running from July 7 - August 3. But poker players looking for a shot at the APT can also get there on the cheap with Bodog's Seat Giveaway Series. The Seat Giveaway Series has buy-ins starting at as low as 5 Bodog Poker Points - so basically they are a series of freerolls. The top 25 players of each of these will get invited to the series finale freeroll which will award another APT Macau seat.
Learn more about Bodog's APT Macau online qualifiers.
Bodog Announces Its Biggest Guaranteed Poker Tournament to Date
Date: Thu, Jul 17, 2008
Bodog has recently announced that its usual Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed poker tournament coming up on August 10th is getting a serious upgrade to $250,000 guaranteed.
The quarter of a million dollar guaranteed prize pool will be the richest Bodog poker tournament to date.
Between July 14th and the week of August 4th they will be offering hundreds of qualifiers with buy-ins ranging from $1+$0 to $54+4. Players will also be able to buy directly in for $250 + $20. No matter how many players show up first place will be guaranteed at least $55,000!
Get the complete details on Bodog's biggest guaranteed poker tournament to date.
2008 WSOP Money Winners - Through Day 5
Date: Thu, Jul 17, 2008
The WSOP main event has reached the money. Cashing in the WSOP is a prestigious moment in any poker player's life. At the 2008 WSOP, the top 666 players won prize money.
Here's some quick stats:
Number of Entries: 6,844
Net Prize Pool: $64,333,600
First Place Prize: $9,119,517
Total Spots Paid Out: 666
Players Remaining: 79
So far through Day 5, places 80-666 won prize money.
Check out the first 587 money winners after the jump
2008 WSOP Reflections
Date: Wed, Jul 16, 2008
Having spent the last 47 days camping out in the Amazon Room at the Rio Resort in Las Vegas I filled my notebook with a long list of trivial happenings, sights, overheard comments, facts, rumors, miracles, controversy, bad beats, obscene piles of money, dead money, four dollar coffee, insanity, and images. In fact, more than thirty thousand images. That's almost one third of the life expectancy of a pro digital camera shutter.
I thought this year's Big Poker Show was well organized and managed by the Harrah's WSOP staff, guess they are learning from past mistakes. The "no excessive celebration" rule kept the player crowd at bay and at times the Amazon Room was as quiet as a golf tournament when Woods is putting for the win. This brings up an interesting question, what footage will ESPN use to pimp the 2008 WSOP TV series? Considering the committee created drought of any spontaneous jubilation could mean we'll be watching yawn-fest 2008 promos this time next year.
When is the "decision of the floor is final" rule not really a rule or final? When the decision is directed toward one of poker's elite stars that can speed dial the Poker Commish and demand a reversal. Such was the case when Hellmuth was assessed a one orbit sit out penalty for excessively berating a fellow player after suffering a bad beat. Turns out, as Hellmuth explained, he was just beefing up his bad boy image for the ESPN cameras. I wonder if a "no excessive whinning" rule should be added to the don't-do-it list? Probably yes, if the WSOP corporate owner's pursuit of sanitizing the event is carried to completion.
Most of us know the root cause for excessive anything at the poker show...money. Chomp, chomp, chomping sharks ala Humberto Brenes or Crazy Man impressions from Rain Khan may have been a bit over the top last year; but, they certainly attracted the attention of the ESPN cameras and that guarantees airtime for sponsor logos and that delivers bonus money to the player. And that brings us to what will probably be the biggest story to come out of this year's WSOP. The last day feud between Tiffany Michele and her original sponsor and employer, Poker News, plus the untouchables at Ultimate Bet.
The young lady is alleged to have entered into an agreement to pimp Ultimate Bet unbeknown to Poker News. Ultimate Bet apparently was out-biding the other online rooms in their efforts to convince the online poker community that the dirty rotten scoundrels that absconded with zillions taken from unsuspecting players in a cheating scheme were now nothing more than a bad memory. Why else would such big names as the Poker Man himself identify with known cheats?
Apparently without consulting anyone at Poker News Tiffany showed up on day 6 all decked out in Ultimate Bet logos from top to toes. As an event photographer for Poker News it became apparent a shot of her that included visible Poker News logos was going to be difficult. The damage had been done and as we all know its not nice to fool with the G. All sides will probably lawyer up to decide this one in the courts. Anyone have an over/under on the amount Tiffany will end up with from the $334,534 she won for 17th place? Depending on the claimed damages to Poker News she could possible end up owing money.
For much more detailed and way better researched information click over to Dr. Pauly's Tao of Poker. Read the Official Statement from Poker News Here.
Main Event Day 7 Recap
Date: Tue, Jul 15, 2008
It was the moment that everyone was waiting for. After 46 days of the World Series of Poker, the $10,000 Main Event championship played down from 27 to the final nine. Those lucky nine players were dubbed The November Nine since the final table will not be played out until November.
The Buzz: Action on Day 7 of the Main Event started out with 27 players and was complete when nine players remained. The November nine includes... Dennis Phillips, Craig Marquis, Ylon Schwartz, Scott Montgomery, Darus Suharto, David 'Chino' Rheem, Ivan Demidov, Kelly Kim, and Peter Eastgate. Sadly, Dean Hamrick bubbled off the final table in 10th place.
The Back Story: In the age of poker agents and endorsement deals, one of the subplots involved what online site would each player wear.... Poker Stars, Full Tilt, or Ultimate Bet.
Sight of the Day: Joe Bishop had several festive friends on the rail who bought him an expensive bottle of Dom Perignon which he shared with his tablemates and the players on the featured TV table.
Quote of the day: "Year of the pros? This is more like the year of the marginal pro," said Shane 'Shaniac' Schelger.
Day 7 Eliminations: Joe Bishop, Chris Klodnicki, Nicholas Sliwinski, Gert Andersen, Owen 'ocrowe' Crowe, Anthony Scherer, Tiffany 'Hot Chips' Michelle, Jason Riesenberg, Albert Kim, Brandon Cantu, Paul Snead, Judet Toni Cristian, Tim Loecke, Aaron Gordon, Niklas Flisberg, Phi Nguyen, and Michael Carroll.
That's it for now. The 2008 WSOP Main Event is currently on hiatus until November.
Stay tuned for some Flipchip photos of the November Nine.
Main Event Day 6 Recap
Date: Mon, Jul 14, 2008
79 players returned to the Rio Sunday afternoon and by day's end, the final nine tables had shrunk to the final three. 27 players will return tomorrow to determine who will be the "November Nine."
The Buzz:The one-round penalty Phil Hellmuth received at the conclusion of Day 5 was overturned at the start of play today. Hellmuth met with Harrah's executives and WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, claiming that he was beefing up his "Poker Brat" act for the cameras. They bought it, and let him off with a severe warning. Had Hellmuth sat out his entire penalty, he would have lost 81,000 in blinds and antes, or approximately 11% of his remaining stack.
The Back Story:Tiffany Michelle is making an incredible run and hopes to become the first woman in over 13 years (and the second woman ever) to make the final table of the WSOP Main Event. Tiffany boasted one of the biggest stacks all day and along with Mike Matusow, the only remaining "name" professional, commanded the majority of the media attention. Matusow, however ended his Main Event run shortly after the dinner break with a 30th place finish.
Sight of the Day: After Phil Hellmuth busted out in 45th place, hordes of tourists streamed out of the final table area, leaving the Amazon Room relatively deserted for the remainder of the day.
Quote of the Day: "ESPN has spiritual people from all over the world praying for Tiffany. It would make for great TV if she made the final table," said Flipchip.
Day 6 Eliminations: Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Peter Neff, Andrew Rosskamm, Felix Osterland, Craig Stein, Mauro Lupo, Kido Pham, Jonathan Plens, Jason Glass, Chris Crilly, Nhan Le, Adam 'Roothlus' Levy, Aaron Keay, Allen Kennedy, Alfredo Fernandez, Mark Ketteringham, Alan Gould, Alex Outhred, Rafael Caiaffa, Eric Bamer, Jeremy Joseph, Jeremy Gaubert, Justin Sadauskas, David Saab, Mark Owens, Thomas Keller, Geert Jans, Brian Tatum, Victor Ramdin, Larry Wright, Chris Zapf, Justin Scott, Suresh Prabhu, Sean Davis, Terry Lade, James McManus, Daniel Buzgon, David Benefield, Jamal Sawaqdeh, Keith Hawkins, Lisa Parsons, Mark Wilds, Matt Matros, and Bob Whalen.
Big Stacks: Brandon Cantu jumped out to over 10 million to take the chip lead early in the day after making a full house against Nikolay Losev only to lose almost all of it on an ill-timed bluff against Craig Marquis. Marquis ended the day with 11.5 million, while Dennis Phillips is the leader with 11.9 million. Tiffany Michelle ended the day third in chips with a shade under 10 million.
Main Event Day 5 Recap
Date: Sun, Jul 13, 2008
189 players returned to the Rio on Saturday afternoon, still in the hunt for the $9.1 million first place prize. Play was halted after four levels with 79 players remaining.
The Buzz: Today was the day that previously unknown and unaffiliated players started showing up to play with logos for online poker sites and energy drinks plastered onto their shirts and caps.
The Backstory: Phil Hellmuth is the only former Main Event champion remaining in the field. Late in the day, he was moved to the ESPN Featured Table, joining Mike Matusow, who spent the duration of Day 5 playing under the glare of the TV lights. A huge crowd gathered in the bleachers to watch these two legendary trash-talkers match wits. Just when it looked like it was going to be a boring matchup, Hellmuth imploded on the last hand so much so that TD Steve Frezer had to issue him a one orbit penalty which he will serve at the start of Day 6.
Sight of the Day: Once a sea of poker tables, most of the Amazon Room was broken down today, signaling that this year's WSOP is nearly at an end.
Quote of the Day: "I shifted gears at the right time baby! I feel GOOD!" bellowed Mike Matusow after doubling up with 10c-5c against Sean Davis' Ad-Kd when a 5 hit the flop.
Big Dogs:Three of the biggest marquee names remaining in the tournament, Gus Hansen, Chip Jett, and Hoyt Corkins busted out in rapid succession, finishing in 160th, 161st, and 162nd places respectively. Allen Cunningham and Jeff Madsen were soon to follow. Phil Hellmuth is still in it but slipped to under 900K to end the day.
Day 5 Eliminations: Shawn "Sheiky" Sheikhan, Kara Scott, Jeff Madsen, Allen Cunningham, Jeremiah Smith, Jon Friedberg, Gus Hansen, Lou Esposito, Ben Roberts, Hoyt Corkins, Chip Jett, Chad Layne, Alexander Kostritsyn, Mark Vos and Robert "Action Bob" Hwang.
Big Stacks: Brandon Cantu remained near the top of the pack for most of Day 5, as did James McManus (not the poker author, but a quiet young man from Ireland). Tiffany Michele also made huge strides today, and ended the day near the top of the leaderboard with 3.8 million. Mark Ketteringham ended the day as the overall leader.
Main Event Day 4 Recap
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2008
Day 4 of the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker Main Event championship was underway at the Rio Casino. 474 players began the day and when it was all over 189 remained.
The Buzz: The field was thinned even more. Action progressed so fast that Jack Effel ended play one level early.
The Backstory: As the last batch of pros busted out, the few that remained got most of the media attention including Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, and Gus Hansen.
The Ladies: Tiffany Michele knocked out Hevad "Rain" Khan as she advanced to Day 5. EPT hostess Kara Scott also made it. Sadly, Evelyn Ng busted out.
Sight of the Day: Phil Hellmuth took time out to feast on the fish.
Quote of the Day: "Idiot from Northern Europe calls a raise with 5-7!" screamed Phil Hellmuth.Yes, the poker brat went on tilt when he lost a pot to an opponent from Scandinavia.
Big Dogs: Johnny Chan busted out early in the afternoon. Phil Hellmuth was in trouble early on but doubled up. Mike the Mouth and Gus Hansen were at the same table and the two were engaged in lots of banter, some trash talk, but both looked like they were having fun.
Day 4 Eliminations: Johnny Chan, Elky, Maya Geller-Antonius, Hasan Habib, Bill Blanda, Magnus Petersson, Chris Bjorin, PearlJammer, Evelyn Ng, Thierry van den Berg, Tracey Nguyen, RainKhan, Tino Lechich, Van Nguyen, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, Mike Souza, and Alan Jaffray, Pat Poels, Carmel Petresco, Thayer Rasmussen, Jani Vilmunen, Iggy, Johnny Bax, Iwan Jones, Frankie O'Dell, Adam Schoenfeld, TMay420, Dave Colclough, Mike Wattel, Jean-Robert Bellande, Kirill Gerasimov, Robert Mizrachi, Jason Lester
Big Stacks: Brandon Cantu was second in chips most of the day. Jeremy Joseph took over the lead early and never looked back. He was the first player past the 2M and 3M mark.
Main Event Day 3 Recap - Money Bubble Breaks!
Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008
The $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker Main Event championship finally reached the third day of action. It would be the first time that all of the remaining players were in the same room. 1,307 players began Day 3. Just before midnight, the money bubble broke. The top 666 players would win at least $21,230 in prize money.
The Buzz: Everyone wondered if the money bubble would break by the end of Day 3, so much so that every was betting on the exact time. At the dinner break, less than 750 players remained. Eliminations were happening at a rapid pace before they slowed down as the money bubble approached. Official time of money bubble burst... 11:25pm.
The Backstory: The big stacks started to develop and the big named pros all started to drop out. Those who remained garnered the majority of the media attention. Former champions Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan went deep and both cashed.
Sight of the Day: Jeremiah Smith sat over a castle of chips as he took the chip lead late in the day and became the first player to pass the one million chip mark.
Quote of the Day: "Congratulations, you all made the money!" said Jack Effel when the money bubble finally broke.
Celebrities: Aussie cricket god Shane Warne ended his run at the WSOP when he busted out on Day 3. Also out was country singer Andy Grigs and Heidi Northcutt (who is Jose Canseco's girlfriend). But famous poker blogger Iggy made the money in his first ever WSOP main event.
Day 3 Eliminations: Chris Moneymaker, Jen Harman, Patrik Antonius, Noah Boeken, Giagbet, Arnold Spee, Russell Rosenblum, Liv Boeree, YellowSub, Heidi Northcott, Barny Boatman, Anthony Rivera, Scott Clements, Erik Seidel, Paul McKinney, Mandy Baker, John D'Agostino, Will Durkee, Matt Sexton, Brandon Schaefer, Tony Hachem, Tex Barch, Matt Glantz, Phil Gordon, Andy Griggs, Steve Z, Eric Morris, Josh Prager, Dennis Waterman, Juan Maceiras, Richard Ashby, Shane Warne, Toto Leonidas, and Anahit Galajian.
Big Stacks: Jeremy Joseph, Jeremiah Smith, Sigurd Eskeland,Alberto Font, Robert Georato, and Karle Wilson.
Main Event Day 2B Recap
Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2008
Wednesday at the Rio Casino featured the second flight of Day 2 of the World Series of Poker main event championship. There was a record number of Day 2 runners with 2,678 entrants. When the day was over, almost two thousand players were eliminated. What a massive wipe out!
The Buzz: With the record-setting field, every possible area was used for the restart of Day 2B. The areas used included the poker room, the hallway in front of Buzio's, the Tropical Room, the Brasilia Room, and the Amazon Room. By dinner, all of the remaining players had been confined to the Amazon Room.
Quote of the Day: "All in and a call? Another donkey down," said Benjo, a writer from the French press, commenting on the rapid pace of eliminations.
Sight of the Day: Gary Clark made spectators, players, and dealers alike turn their heads because they thought they saw McLovin from the film Super Bad. The Irish McLovin look-a-like advanced to Day 3.
Celebrities: Andy Griggs, Sully Erna, Shannon Elizabeth, and the famous poker blogger Iggy were in the mix.
Day 2B Eliminations:Bryan Micon, Liz Lieu, David Singer, Amir Vahedi, Burt Boutin
Big Stacks: Just before midnight Carmel Petresco made a run an jumped into the Top 10 in chips. Alex Outhred, Peter Biebel, Raja Kattamuri , Victor Ramdin, and Reagan Silber ended the day among the leaders.
Main Event Day 2A Recap
Date: Wed, Jul 9, 2008
Day 2 of the 2008 WSOP was split into two flights. Day 2A kicked off on Tuesday with 1,252 players returning to battle it out in the Amazon Room. When it was over, less than 500 players remained. Day 2B starts on Wednesday at Noon.
The Buzz: As much as Day 2A was underway, most of the chatter was about what happened away from the tables at the PokerStars Party at Rain from the night before. 2008 WSOP bracelet winner Dario Minieri and Isabelle Mercier were lip locking at the bar and having a blast.
Quote of the Day: Madeline Ugar, Stu Ungar's widow, started Day 2A with "Shuffle up and deal!" But before she started the day, she spoke to the crowd for a few moments about a new foundation she started in Stu's name. She said that there's not a day that goes by where someone doesn't bring up a Stuey Ungar story. She also said that it's almost ten years since he passed away.
The Celebrities: "Everybody Loves Raymond" star Ray Romano ran Kings into Aces and got crippled before he was moved to the featured TV table. Ray hung on with a short stack but eventually busted. French actress Alexia Portal also hit the rail early on Day 2A. Aussie cricket legend Shane Warne had a decent stack for most of the day.
Sight of the Day: The first of many big stacks started to develop late in Day 2. Guys like Brian Schaedlich, Jeremiah Smith, and Hunter Frey were all past the 400K mark by Midnight and rushing towards 500K.
Day 2A Eliminations: Erick Lindgren, Barry Greenstein, Billy Baxter, Jesse Jones, Shaun Deeb, Cathy Liebert, Billy the Croc, Ted Lawson, Trond Eidsvig, Robert Varkonyi, Alex Bolotin, Gabe Thaler, Sweet Svetlana, Scotty Nguyen, Alexia Portal, Perry Friedman, John Myung, Greg "FBT" Mueller, The Eggman Thomas Wahlroos, Lee Markholt, Harry Demetriou, Barry Shulman, John Shipley, Paul Wasicka, David Grey, Susie Isaacs, Steve Brecher, Michael Criag, Mark Karam, Ray Romano, Johnny World Hennigan, Vicky Coren, Sverre Sundbo, Nick Schulman, Ciaran O'Leary, Dan Schmiech, Haralabos Voulgaris, and Julian Gardner.
Big Stacks: Brian Schaedlich was one of the first players to pass the half a million chip mark. Also with lots of chip? Jeremiah Smith, Hunter Frey, and Brandon Adams.
WSOP Day 2A Today at Noon
Date: Tue, Jul 8, 2008
Monday was an off-day for the WSOP with no event play scheduled other than the daily tournaments. The Pokernews WSOP crew held it's annual freeroll in the Amazon room at the Rio and that was about the most excitement of the day; but, that all changes on Tuesday at Noon. The remaining players from Day 1A and 1B are combined into a crowd of 1,251 players taking a seat for Day 2A.
The overall chip leader in today's contest is Mark Garner from Day 1A with 194,900. Second in chips is Day 1B chip leader Ben Samoff with 177,500. Two former WSOP main Event Champions, Robert Varkonyi 2002 and Scotty Nguyen 2001,l survived their Day 1 play and will be the only former world champions playing Day 2A.
More random facts from the 2008 WSOP main event follows. Day 1 A and B players totaled 2,455 and included 56 females or approximately 2.23% proving once again that most females would rather be doing anything else. Erick Lindgren was declared 2008 WSOP Player of the Year which means he will have a billboard size portrait hung on the wall of the Amazon Room. Poker players from 104 countries entered events at this year's WSOP. This is the fourth year the Big Poker Show has been played at the Rio Resort.
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