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Saturday, May 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Today is the first day that really feels like the World Series of Poker. The Casino Employees’ tournament started all by it’s lonesome on Wednesday, the $40,000 Anniversary Hold-Em event drew an elite field, but a small one (201 players), and while the $1,500 Omaha/8 tournament field was the biggest in that particular game’s history, it wasn’t enough to fill up the room. But with 3,000 players stampeding into the Rio for today’s $1,000 Stimulus event, NOW the room was filled up. And not just the Amazon Room–there’s a lot going on over in Brasilia and Miranda as well. And chances are the Rio is going to be this packed until we get to Day 3 or 4 of the Main Event, more than a month from now.
There won’t be a bracelet awarded today, the last day for a long time when that won’t happen. The $40,000 No-Limit event is playing down to the final table and it’s attracted a massive crowd along the rail and atop ESPN Final Table Stage:
The $1,500 Omaha/8 event is down to 153 players, with 90 getting paid. One player no longer in the field is UB pro Brandon Cantu, who was knocked out about 90 minutes ago when he committed the last of his chips with pocket kings and was rivered by a player who made a straight. Such is life when it comes to Omaha:
But three UB pros are still in contention in the Omaha/8 tournament. Phil Hellmuth is once again seated up against the rail, where he’s drawn quite a crowd. Though that may in part be due to the fact that he’s seated just to the right of Erick Lindgren and Freddy Deeb:
According to the PokerNews chip counts Phil is one of the shorter stacks left with just 7,900 (and the blinds set up rise to 800-1,500). Owner of a more robust pile of chips is Hollywood Dave Stann, who has around 40,000 after a ping-pongy start to the day.
And after trouncing Norman Chad in this afternoon’s lemonade-stand competition, Annie Duke returned to her day job and has built up a 45,000 stack. Annie’s WSOP bracelet was in Omaha/8, so history could be repeating itself. That said, there’s still a long, long, long way to go before we start talking about bracelets.
Crowded rooms, money bubbles, superstars vying for a spot at a televised final table, more bad-beat stories than you can shut your ears to…yup, the 2009 World Series of Poker is in full swing.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Annie Duke, Brandon Cantu, Erick Lindgren, freddy deeb, Phil Hellmuth, world series of poker, WSOP
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Saturday, May 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Today is the $1,000 Stimulus No-Limit event, which blew past the original 5,600 cap and will now host a whopping 6,000 players over two days. Inside the Amazon Room things are rather relaxed and subdued, as the dealers get set up and count out the chips and wait for play to begin:
Outside, however, it’s a different story, as over 3,000 players and spectators and innocent victims caught up in the wash wait for the doors to open:
It’s about 20 degrees warmer out in the hallway than it is here in the Amazon Room. Actually the throngs aren’t as bad as last year, it looks like players who are assigned to the Brasilia Room are being shunted that way, preventing a massive logjam at the Amazon Room entrance.
Uh-oh, looks like they’re about to open the doors and allow the mob within. This is probably going to be the biggest non-Main Event tournament in poker history. 6,000 players paying a dime apiece. Looks stimulating to me.
Tags: 2009 stimulus tournament, 2009 wsop, stimulus tournament, WSOP
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Saturday, May 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
From the Twitter we learn that Annie Duke will be engaged in a lemonade-selling contest with Norman Chad of ESPN. The two will be fighting it out in the rotunda outside the Amazon Room (I’m sure it won’t be hard to spot) and they’ll be selling lemonade for a buck a glass. This is Las Vegas, folks–hydration is extremely important. I’m sure I’ll be thirsty come high noon, maybe I’ll bring my camera along with a crisp dollar bill to see Annie put the beatdown on Norm.
Once Annie’s done her part providing the masses with tart beverages she has a little matter of Day 2 of the $1,500 Omaha/8 event to attend to. This event had the biggest field in Omaha/8 history (918 players) and 197 will return to action on Day 2. Annie, Phil Hellmuth, Hollywood Dave and Brandon Cantu all have adequate stacks and could be poised to make deep runs. That tournament resumes at 2pm; but first, I think I’d like some lemonade.
Tags: Annie Duke, annie duke lemonade stand, annie duke normal chad, annie duke norman chad lemonade competition, Brandon Cantu, Hollywood Dave, norman chad, norman chad annie duke lemonande stand, norman chad espn, omaha/8, Phil Hellmuth, world series of poker, WSOP
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Friday, May 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The marquee table today has been the one hosting Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Scotty Nguyen, David “The Dragon” Pham and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. And if you need any further explaination about why that’s so, jeez, just look at that lineup. Sick.
A crowd gathered along the rail around the table and it didn’t dissipate throughout the day. But it’s thinned a bit in the last few minutes, in part because of the lateness of the hour, and in part because Phil Hellmuth was just eliminated. After building his stack up to over a quarter million Phil lost a big confrontation with Alan Sass, who made a tough call with top pair after Phil set him all in on the river. That left Phil with just shy of 40,000 and it was a long hard fight from there.
A fight that came to an end when Phil Ivey raised and Hellmuth moved in for his last 90,000 from the small blind. Ivey called and his A-K dominated Hellmuth’s A-J. As PokerNews reported, Hellmuth said, “He raises my blind five times, then when I make a move he has a hand?”
Yes, Ivey had a hand and after the Kd-8h-6d flop he had a hammerlock on the pot. Phil H. got no help on the turn and river and just that fast his tournament came to an end. “Ivey so lucky against me, but I will have my turn vs him for sure!” Phil tweeted seconds after his bustout. And that’s some small consolation for the UB pros who didn’t have very good luck today–tomorrow is another day. Still 55 more chances to win a bracelet.
Tags: Phil Hellmuth, phil hellmuth $40K, phil hellmuth world series of poker, phil hellmuth wsop
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Thursday, May 28, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
It’s time.
The first open event of the 2009 World Series of Poker is just 15 minutes away, a $40,000 No-Limit Hold-Em event that will no doubt attract one of the elite fields of the year. I just got my press badge (man, the ID pictures on them are HUGE), got my seat on Media Row, and we’re waiting for Tournament Director Jack Effel to open the doors and let the players into the Amazon Room.
And just like that, Jack just made the announcement to open the doors and release the hounds. Just a few minutes away from the start of biggest Hold-Em event of the year, and the “real” start of the 2009 World Series of Poker.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, world series of poker, WSOP
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009 - HollywoodDave
Soooo….finally back on the west coast from last week’s Celebrity Apprentice debacle & gearing up for the WSOP!! Hard to believe its just over a week away and then it is 6 weeks of madness — and, of course, bracelets! The past 2 years I have had less than stellar results, but have always felt like I played well. Maybe this is the year I can trade in playing well for making some sick cashes instead lol…
So this final week is some much needed downtime, which means spending some quality time with my dad & bros, as well as catching up on all the season finales of my fave tivoed shows: 24, Lie to Me, and despite not watching as much as I did last season, American Idol! I am blown away by how much of a total rockstar Adam Lambert is, but after last week’s highway robbery by Joan Rivers, I am not placing any bets on the outcome of Idol…lets just say that my tenuous faith in the moral decency of primetime reality television programming has been shaken to its core & I don’t know how long it will take me to trust in it once again!
I’ve been playing online a lot more lately, but mostly lower stakes this week to force myself to focus on the fundamentals of poker once again. Sometimes the hardest game of all to beat, especially online, is a full 5/10 ring game — all of the elements of the WSOP masses are there: the loose callers, the chasers, the semi-pros, and the tight & bluffable weak spots. I’m trying to experience a wider range of styles so that I am completely prepared for the crush of players starting next week at the Rio, rather than the primarily uber-aggro action freaks you find more prevalently at the higher levels.
Other than that just been kickin it with my girl MB & loving life 
Its been awhile since I’ve been so completely happy just sharing my life with someone & that is exactly what I’ve been doing for a few wonderful months now. And amazing how much better my poker game has been — not only the WSOP Circuit ring, but a bunch of deep cashes online as well! So the moral of the story this week is that HD is calm, relaxed, and centered… and ready to kick some ass starting next week! Make sure you guys add me on twitter so you can get all the moment-by-moment action at the tables @ www.Twitter.com/Hollywood_Dave
Til then –
-hd.
Tags: 24, Adam Lambert, American Idol, Celebrity Apprentice, Lie to Me, Twitter, WSOP
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Thursday, May 14, 2009 - COO
I don’t watch much TV. I watch poker television (high stakes poker is my fav), mixed martial arts fights and I do watch quite a few movies. I had heard of ‘The Apprentice’ before but when Annie first talked to me about applying for the show, I had never watched an episode. When Annie told me about the opportunity she was a little reluctant about appearing on a reality TV show. I know Annie pretty well and I knew she would be a great competitor on the show, so I tried to encourage her to go for it. Her appearance would create exposure for Refugees International and UB of course 
so I was very happy when she went to the audition and got the part.
Throughout the season I thought Annie did an amazing job in every challenge. She created songs, made meals, raised insane amounts of money for charity, etc. It all made for great television and I think it was hard not to be impressed by her performance. But the end of the series became all about Joan Rivers vs Annie Duke, which got pretty intense, but again it made for great television. The producers and editors were wise to jump on the feud and cultivate more drama on the show.
I was obviously cheering for my friend Annie to win but from watching the show it seemed that Mr. Trump was leaning towards Joan the entire season anyway. I am not trying to take anything away from Joan because I think she did a great job in the final challenge, but overall Annie was by far the best competitor but it is reality TV after all, so I’m assuming Donald had business reasons for choosing Joan as the winner. All in all, they were both great competitors and they were both winners. Truck loads of money was raised for charity and I don’t think Annie’s fund raising record will ever be beat in future seasons.
We at UB contributed a lot of money to Refugees International, because we think it is a great charity and we thank Annie for encouraging us to do so. I really think that Refugees International is going to have a great year and a bright future largely because of the exposure Annie was able to get them on Celebrity Apprentice.
For me personally, I am just really impressed by Annie as a person and how she continues to challenge herself and work tirelessly. It really makes me want to continually push myself with exciting and difficult challenges that I will be able to look back proudly on for the rest of my life. The only challenge that comes to mind right now is possibly making a boxing proposition bet with one of UB’s competitors
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Monday, April 27, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
There are 30 days until the start of the 2009 World Series of Poker–this I learned from the Twitter feed of WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. Yes, even the Commish is Twittering now, God help us all. A month until the Series starts, and then a 50-day marathon of bracelets and bad beats and Benjamins until the next November Nine is set. And for the third consecutive year I’ll be there providing gavel-to-gavel coverage for the ‘ol UltimateBet Blog.
Every year the WSOP seems to be better organized and better run–last year there were so few complaints that people were writing stories about how strange it was that no one was complaining. Lots of people expected the number of players to decrease, but instead there was a substantial upticks. There was an uproar when Harrah’s announced they would delay the final table for four months, but TV ratings for the November Nine were up around 50%.
And people are talking about the changes to this year’s World Series. No more rebuy events–the insane shove-fests that characterized the rebuy periods were deemed unfair to players who didn’t bring a bandolier of rebuys (and who perhaps found themselves at a table with half the chips as other tables). The opening event is a $40,000 Hold-Em tournament to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the World Series–how might that deplete players’ bankrolls just as the WSOP begins? And the rules about verbal abuse have been dramatically tightened–forget the “F-bomb” rule, just about any nastiness directed at another play could result in a penalty.
There’s also been a change in the TV scheduling. Only four events will be televised by ESPN–the Main Event; aforementioned $40K Hold-Em tournament; the Ante Up for Africa event, and a special invitational event for past Main Event champions. None of the other bracelet events will be televised and there is going to be even more Main Event coverage than before.
This year’s WSOP will be held in a world that’s in a serious state of flux. The current economic crisis is the worst the world has seen since the Great Depression, who knows how that might affect attendance. There’s also the potential for great change in the poker world as well, as Rep. Barney Frank is planning on introducing legislation that would legalize online poker (and perhaps online gaming in genera) in the United States. A repeal of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) could trigger a new poker boom, one that might first make itself known at this year’s Series.
But all that will happen outside the confines of the Amazon Room. Inside, the game will go on as it always has and always will. Even if there are fewer players this year the World Series of Poker is still an event of staggering size. In 2008 a total of 58,720 players competed for prize pools that totaled a jaw-dropping $180,774,427. Peter Eastgate won more money as the Main Event champion than Tiger Woods (U.S Open), Roger Federer (U.S. Open), Ryan Newman (Daytona 500) and Scott Dixon (Indy 500) won, combined, for capturing their sports’ premiere events.
If you play poker and you’ve never visited the World Series of Poker, you really should make a pilgrimage to see it for yourself. Because once you see it, you’ll want to find a way to play in it. It is a sight to behold, and even if you spend 50 consecutive days and nights in the belly of the beast it’s still an awesome spectacle. And it’s just 30 days away.
Tags: 2009 november nine, 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, Ante Up For Africa, november nine, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, world series of poker, world series of poker main event, WSOP, wsop main events
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Monday, April 20, 2009 - UB Marketing
Montreal, Canada felt ridiculously electric this weekend. For those of you have yet to catch any sports highlights, tens of thousands of people descended on Canada’s second-biggest city for the promise of an ultimate weekend. And they were attracted there by a lot more than just poutine, a French delicacy consisting of fries, cheese curds and gravy.
The big deal in town was UFC 97. That’s Ultimate Fighting Championship for those of you who have been living under a rock. You couldn’t go anywhere in the city without hearing people talk about it. I hit Schwartz’s, the world-famous deli, for some smoked meat and the place was packed with UFC fans. I must have heard the names Chuck Liddell and Anderson Silva uttered at least 97 times.
Making Ultimate Fighting Championship even more ultimate than ever before was UltimateBet’s sponsorship of the Montreal event and several fighters.
Silva vs. Leites, Liddell vs. Rua, Soszynski vs. Stann, Kongo vs. Hardonk, and Marshall vs. Magalhaes were five of the fights in which one of the players sported the UB logo on his ass.
I had the privilege of witnessing the event first hand and I gotta tell you it was unreal. From the moment I set foot inside The Bell Centre, or Le Centre Bell as they say in French, you could totally tell why UB chose to sponsor Ultimate Fighting Championship. And it’s not just the fact that we share the word ultimate.
This sport is all about fierce competition and fast action, just like UltimateBet’s online poker tables. And UFC fans are ridiculously passionate about the sport, similar to how UltimateBet is such a strong online poker community made up of players who are passionate about both our amazing site and online poker.
We invited a few players down to Montreal for UFC 97. PATIZZIE, an Ultimate ICON, was one of them and he joined a few members of the UB marketing team for dinner before the event. If you wanna experience once-in-a-lifetime events on a regular basis, become an Ultimate ICON by elevating you RAI$E Status Level.
Soszynski and Marshall crushed their opponents, so as sponsors we’re pretty thrilled about that. The rest of the UB-sponsored fighters put up a good fight, but were ultimately defeated, including Chuck Liddell. I’m not gonna lie to you, it took me about 5 minutes to pick up my dropped jaw after he lost.
Anyway, other than Chuck Liddell’s defeat, it was an amazing weekend. And this is just the start of UB’s relationship with UFC so get ready for some crazy stuff from marketing launching soon. I’ve said too much. Now someone’s gonna kick my ass. Hopefully it won’t be Soszynski or Marshall.
Tags: Chuck Liddell, Hardonk, Kongo, Leites, Magalhaes, Marshall, Rua, Schwartz, Silva, Soszynski, The Bell Centre, UFC, UFC 97, ultimate fighting championship
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Friday, April 17, 2009 - John Greene
Once upon a time, Dana Kunze jumped 172 feet into a pool. That’s 52.4 meters if you use that particular measurement system. He did it while wearing a bikini. Because that’s how he does things. You can (and should) watch it YouTube. Oh, he manages to do a triple backflip on the way down, too. Showoff.
(I’m never ever going to be nervous betting at the tables again now that I’ve known what real ballsiness looks like.)
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