WSOP
Thursday, June 18, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Or it WAS a hockey night in Vegas, last night. The NHL Charity Shootout tournament was held yesterday and a number of current and former NHL legends were here in the Amazon Room. I took a bunch of pictures, which was difficult at times because what with the ESPN cameras orbiting the table I had to shoot through the glass that was set up around the table–you do recall me saying that they’d remodeled the Feature Table arena to give it a more appropriate feel:
They also replaced the table’s green felt with a really cool rink motif:
The tournament was conducted shootout-style, with the top 3 players at each table moving on to the final table. A few pics I managed to snag:
Current MVP (and he’ll almost certainly win the award again tonight) Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals. That white fin pointed at his head was from the lens hood of the film camera, sorry about that, couldn’t angle myself over to get a better shot. Notice please that Ovechkin is wearing an All-Star baseball cap, not a Stanley Cup Champion cap. Have I mentioned before that I’m from Pittsburgh and a borderline-insane Penguins fan?
Montreal Canadiens forward-enforcer Georges Laraque. Laraque played for the Pens the previous two seasons, where he was a huge fan-favorite (literally and figuratively). One of the most feared fighters in the NHL, Laraque isn’t one of those guys who goes out and picks fights. He lets others start the fight…and then he ends it. Oftentimes two guys will agree before a faceoff to duke it out, and after the two agree to drop the gloves Laraque often says, without sarcasm, “Good luck”. Seems like the sort of guy you’d like to have at your table. Maybe at the other end of your table.
Jeremy Roenick, currently with the San Jose Sharks after having played (and played exceedingly well) for about a half-dozen other teams during his illustrious career. He was one of the more crowd-pleasing players during the tournament, and even when he was waiting for the final table to start. We were sitting on Media Row when Roenick sat down with a stack of red and green chips and was playing some young guy heads-up. It didn’t take Roenick long to lose his stack, and then he leapt up and headed back to the stage. It was remarked during the tournament that Roenick looks more like actor James Woods than James Woods does.
NBC hockey analyst (and former Penguin player, coach and announcer) Ed Olczyk. More than any other hockey personality at the event, Olczyk LOOKED like a poker player. He also won a pot playing my favorite hand, the Hammer (otherwise known as Seven-Deuce offsuit).
As the day wore on I started to get a wee bit excited, as I knew the STANLEY CUP would be arriving around 8pm and I was gonna be there when that happened. I knew the Cup was going to be included in the daily bracelet ceremony (which was pushed back from 2pm to eight) and a bit before the appointed hour I got a spot by the stage and stared down anyone who tried to infringe on my territory. Some guy tried to engage me in idiotic conversation (about how he should’ve won two bracelets already like J.C. Tran but in 2007 his aces got blah blah blah) but I looked at him in such a way that he quickly ended the conversation and scurried away with his head still on his shoulders.
And then the side door behind the stage opened and…there was the Stanley Cup, carried in by a gentleman wearing clean white gloves and escorted by a phalanx of security, Harrah’s execs, and excited gawkers. I held my ground by the stage as people saw the Cup carried up on stage and pressed close, and I squeezed off a few shots of the Holy Grail itself:
It was smaller than I expected, more nicked-up, not as shiny, and the bowl at the top was dented in a few places. And, sigh, it was more beautiful than I dreamed. Jeffrey Pollack took the microphone and told the crowd that the NHL had come to the WSOP for the day, and that included the greatest trophy (yes, he said even greater than the WSOP bracelet) in the world, the Stanley Cup.
Pollack introduced the three bracelet winners from the day before–Leo Wolpert, James Van Alstyne, and J.C. Tran, and the crowd stood as the Star-Spangled Banner was played for the three new champions:
After that Pollack introduced Gary Bettman, the NHL Commissioner (and Pollack’s brother), who returned the throngs to action by announcing “shuffle up and deal!”. And then the two Commissioners posed for a few pics with the Cup:
It’s been something of a running joke among my friends on Media Row that I’d need to be kept on a leash when the Cup arrived. I may have made some idle comments about grabbing the Cup and making a break for the door (and probably getting Tasered within five steps). During the bracelet ceremony I was about 5 feet from the Cup–all I had to do was step forward, reach out, and touch it. That’s all I wanted to do–touch the Cup. Maybe get my picture taken with it.
As the ceremony ended a guy in a Steelers sweatshirt squeezed forward to get a better look, apologizing for his shouldering by saying, “I’m from Pittsburgh, I gotta get a closer look!”. I said I was from Pittsburgh too and we did the fist-bump to celebrate the Pens victory. As the crowd started to disperse he took that step forward, reached out, and touched the Cup, as his friends snapped pictures.
The reaction wasn’t as extreme as I feared, but there was a reaction. Security moved forward, a Harrah’s person told him to knock it off, another barked an order and the man with the gloves whisked the Cup off the stage. My fellow ‘Burgher apologized and said, “I’m sorry, sir, but I HAD to touch the Cup!” That seemed to satisfy the guards, they didn’t hustle him out of the room, so maybe I could’ve gotten away with putting my fingertips on the Cup. Or, maybe I would’ve lost my media badge. It wasn’t worth the risk.
They brought the Cup onto the Final Table stage and set it on a table near where the bracelet display usually is. A few WSOP employees had their pictures taken with the Cup, but they weren’t letting just anybody (or, just anybody like me) in for a snapshot. I guess I understand–let someone like me say cheese while standing by the Cup and EVERYBODY would want to get a picture. Madness, chaos, the end of civilization would ensue.
So I just there with the other media types for a bit and just…looked at it. Funny, had the Penguins lost Game 7 the sight of the Cup would’ve made me want to barf. Instead I sighed like a lovesick teenager. I wonder if players who win WSOP bracelets feel the same way when they get their hands on it. I wonder if players who come second and don’t have a bracelet look at it and feel nauseous. And I wonder how long those feelings last. For me, I looked at the Cup from afar for about fifteen minutes, and then I remembered I hadn’t eaten in about 10 hours. It was enough to see it, take pictures of it, bask in its presence. Eventually the Stanley Cup will return home to Pittsburgh, and so will I. “I’ll catch up with you later,” I said to that glittering silver chalice, and headed for home.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, alexander ovechkin, ed olczyk, gary bettman, georges laraque, jeremy roenick, nhl charity shootout, nhl commissioner gary bettman, pittsburgh penguins, stanley cup, stanley cup at the world series of poker, stanley cup at wsop, stanley cup champions, stanley cup wsop, WSOP
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Thursday, June 18, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
As the day wore on attrition took it’s toll on Phil Hellmuth’s stack. He lost another sizable pot and then the antes began their remorseless nibbling at what was left. Until this was all that was left:
To compare, this is the stack of Cody Slaubaugh, the chip leader at the time who was sitting at Phil’s table:
Phil was eventually anted down to the felt, where he was all-in on his big blind. He lost, and was out. He won $3,231 for his 113th-place finish, but he had a last-longer bet with Roland de Wolfe (at 20-1 odds) and lost $2,000 when he was eliminated. Phil just tweeted that he played Chinese poker afterwards at $500 a point…and lost 101 points. I’ll leave you to do the math. Suffice to say, today did not provide quite the results Phil Hellmuth was looking for.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Phil Hellmuth, world series of poker, WSOP
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Phil Hellmuth just cashed for the 71st time at the World Series of Poker–but it’s been an up-and-down day. The big dip came right before the money bubble burst, as Phil doubled up Alex Kravchenko when Phil ran pocket Queens into Kravchenko’s pocket Aces. Losing that hand left Phil with just 30,000, but just a few minutes later we began hand-for-hand play and Phil survived the next bustout to record cash #71.
He then moved from survive to thrive when he won a big pot on the first hand after play resumed. After Scott Dorch limped and the Marcel Vonk called in the small blind called Phil checked his option in the big blind. The flop came Qs-7s-3h, Vonk and Hellmuth checked, and Dorch bet 2,500. Vonk called and then Phil said, “I was gonna smooth call, now I gotta raise it up.” He popped it to 12,000, Dorch folded and Vonk thought a bit before announcing he was all-in. Phil snap-called and turned over Kd-Qd for top pair to Vonk’s As-Js and nut flush draw. The Jh on the river gave Vonk two more outs but the river brought the 4h, which sent Vonk to the rail and a big pile of chips to Phil to assimilate into his stack.
That boosted Phil stack back up to 65,000, but as I returned to write up that hand PokerNews reported that Phil lost a big confrontation with Benjamin Scholl that sent him back down to 25,000. So it looks like it’s gonna be one of those roller-coaster days, though hopefully a long one.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, most wsop cashes, Phil Hellmuth, record for most wsop cashes, world series of poker, WSOP
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The Amazon Room, at 10AM:
The room still isn’t completely empty, there are a half-dozen cash game tables still in play, but for the most part it’s quiet right now. That’ll change in about an hour, when the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event kicks off. And then at 2pm it’s the resumption of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold-Em event, where Phil Hellmuth will return to an 88,100 stack and with just a few eliminations standing in the way of his 71st career WSOP cash…and perhaps more.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, Phil Hellmuth, ub, ultimatebet, world series of poker, WSOP
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The talk started from the very top, Jeffrey Pollack himself. Just minutes after the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings the WSOP commissioner twittered that the Stanley Cup might make an appearance at the World Series of Poker. Pollack and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman are half-brothers; the NHL Awards Ceremony will be held on Thursday at the Palms, right across the street from the Rio. Pollack had also twittered earlier that “the WSOP Gold Bracelet is the Stanley Cup of Poker. There 4 the Stanley Cup is the WSOP Gold Bracelet of hockey”. Knowing the esteem the Commish holds each World Series bracelet in, I expected he’d think of the Cup in the same way. And he wouldn’t kid about something like THE STANLEY CUP COMING TO THE AMAZON ROOM.
I think I mentioned the other day that I’m from Pittsburgh, I’m a die-hard Penguin fan, and I’ve been on Cloud 9 since the Pens won the Cup. Heck, I was looking at pictures from the victory parade yesterday and had to wipe away a tear or two. So I’ve had my ears tuned to the possibility that the Cup might come to me, as I couldn’t go to the Cup. And indeed, it turns out Jeffrey Pollack wasn’t kidding. Tomorrow there’s going to be a charity poker tournament starring a number of NHL superstars at the ESPN Feature table. Alexander Ovechkin (must resist giving him a knee-on-knee hit), Roberto Luongo, Mike Richards, Jeremy Roenick and many others will be playing.
ESPN will be filming the event and they’re busy right now turning the stage into, well, a rink. They’re putting up boards around the table, they’ve got a net set up, it’s kinda neat:
As is the table–they’ve removed the green felt and replaced it with an “ice” surface, complete with bluelines, faceoff circles, a logo at center ice:
The boards might look a little strange but in a certain way it works. How many times have you seen someone jumping up and down after sucking out and wished that, say, Brooks Orpik would skate in from off-camera and slam the jackass into the boards? Goodness, how much might ESPN’s ratings jump if viewers knew that some player might get a two-minute penalty for boarding Phil Hellmuth?
There’s a small, circular table standing just off stage–I wonder what they’re going to put on that? The tournament begins tomorrow at 10AM, an early start for the World Series. I may just sleep at my desk tonight.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, gary bettman, jeffrey pollack, nhl, nhl awards show, nhl charity shootout, pittsburgh penguins, stanley cup at the world series of poker, world series of poker, WSOP
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Just a few years ago it seemed like poker was dying. Wait, that’s not quite I mean to say–Texas Hold-Em was going like gangbusters, but the other poker games players had enjoyed for decades–Stud, Omaha, even Razz–faded away in the face of the Hold-Em supernova. The World Poker Tour only featured Hold-Em tournaments. The vast majority of online play was Hold-Em cash games or tournaments. Every poker instructional book focused on Hold-Em, Hold-Em was the game in every poker-themed movie and TV show.
It was in 2006 that the revolt started. The 2006 World Series of Poker was criticized by many top players as the “World Series of Hold-Em”. So many of the events were switched to Hold-Em that many players felt the World Series was in danger of not being a true test of overall poker skills. And they wanted the WSOP to reflect that there are poker games other than Hold-Em (Pot-Limit Omaha, for example, which has long been the dominant game in Europe).
And Harrah’s listened to those complaints and made some changes to the schedule. They added three H.O.R.S.E. events, a S.H.O.E. event, and a few mixed-game events. 2007 brought a new crown jewel to the poker calendar, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. This year there are 23 Hold-Em events among the World Series’ 54 open tournaments, and while that may sound like a lot there’s even variation within the Hold-Em sphere, with Pot-Limit, Shootout, Heads-Up, and Six-Handed tournaments among them. Then factor in all the split-pot, mixed-game, Omaha/Stud/Razz/Deuce to Seven games were in danger of being eased off the WSOP stage.
And poker players have taken to this restored diversity en masse. There were 770 entrants for the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event (and one of the players in the final 20, Lana Maier, is a friend/fellow blogger). The final pairing of the $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship between John Duthie and Leo Wolpert is playing out right now on the ESPN Feature Stage. The final table of the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha starts at 2pm, and the $10,000 Limit Hold-Em event will restart then as well (and with Annie Duke still in the hunt).
Of course there’s still good ‘ol Texas Hold-Em to be found at the Rio today as well. A $1,500 No-Limit event started at noon, and Day 2 of the $2,000 No-Limit tournament resumes in a few minutes. It’s not that Hold-Em isn’t a great game, because it is–and some would say that it’s the greatest game. But there are other great games as well, great poker games, and it’s good to see so many people enthusiastic about them. Variety is the spice of life, and the variety of games offered at the 2009 World Series of Poker is tasty enough for the most discerning palate.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, pot-limit omaha, split-pot, Stud, texas hold-em, world series of hold-em, world series of poker, WSOP
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Monday, June 15, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Phil Hellmuth, of course, holds the record for most World Series of Poker bracelets with eleven. But will he hold that record by himself by the end of the day. On the ESPN Feature Table Johnny Chan is in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship, and should Chan defeat three opponents in one-on-one play today he’d tie Phil with eleven bracelets apiece.
Chan was the first player to win ten bracelets, though his mark was matched less than a week later by Doyle Brunson. Phil Hellmuth then caught them both and then surpassed them when he won his eleventh bracelet in 2007. That’s the last time these three legends engaged in one-upsmanship with each other…until today?
Tags: 11 bracelets, 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, doyle brunson, johnny chan, most wsop bracelets, Phil Hellmuth, who has the most wsop bracelets, world series of poker, WSOP
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Monday, June 15, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
It’s a busy night at the Rio with tournaments scattered throughout the three big rooms. Keeping track of who’s playing where isn’t easy, as a number of pros often rush from one event to another when they get eliminated. One player who hasn’t made that mad dash tonight is Liv Boeree, who is among the final 120 players in the $1,500 No-Limit event being contested in the Amazon Room. I posted a pic of Liv this afternoon and I thought I’d try to post one here that was a little more, well, metal:
One player who did make the trek from one event to the other was Michael Binger, who was eliminated from the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament and headed over to buy into the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event, and he’s sitting in the Miranda Room playing in that event right now:
Also playing in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event is Annie Duke, who bought in late. And her starting table should give you an idea of how loaded that tournament is–Annie’s sitting with Jennifer Harman, Sam Simon, Raymond Davis, Michael Craig, and Erick Lindgren.
And last, but certainly not least, we circle back to the Amazon Room and the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, where Phil Hellmuth built up a huge stack early on but saw it reduced to 7,600 just before the dinner break.
That event has just returned from break and is back to play, as are all the other events going on this fine Sunday (it is Sunday, right? I lose track). And it looks like Liv Boeree might be playing until Monday–she just made a straight flush to double up to 110,000 with 99 players left. The chipleader has over 450,000, but Liv’s got over 30 big blinds and room to manuever. Could be a long night.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Annie Duke, h.o.r.s.e., Liv Boeree, Michael Binger, Phil Hellmuth, pot-limit omaha, world series of poker, WSOP
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Sunday, June 14, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Every day at 2:20 pm World Series of Poker Commissioner takes to the small stage set up by the Feature Table Arena and presents the previous day’s winners with their gold WSOP bracelets. The ceremony always attracts a fair number of reporters, photographers and camerapeople who aim their instruments of recordation at the dais and the latest poker champion. Today the crowd was just a bit larger than usual, because one of the players who received a bracelet is a bit larger than life–Phil Ivey, who last night won his second bracelet this year (and his seventh overall).
As the appointed hour grew close and the media thronged around the stage a rumor circulated that Ivey wasn’t coming to the ceremony. I wanted to get a picture of the media gaggle surrounding the stage and if Ivey wasn’t gonna show, chances are much of the press would as well. But at 2:20 there was Ivey, standing next to Pete Vilandos, who won a bracelet in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold-Em event last night. Vilandos was the first to take the stage and accept his bracelet, and the players in the room stood to listen to the Greek national anthem:
And then it was Ivey’s turn to shake Jeffrey Pollack’s hand and take possession of his seventh bracelet. And time for a platoon of shutterbugs to press close (or loom overhead) to get shots of Ivey standing at attention for the Star-Spangled Banner:
I’d like to see what the media crush would be like, if, say, Phil Hellmuth won his twelfth bracelet. We still have five weeks to find out.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, bracelet ceremony, jeffrey pollack, Phil Hellmuth, phil ivey, ub, ub wsop, ultimatebet, ultimatebet wsop, world series of poker, WSOP, wsop bracelet ceremony
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Sunday, June 14, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Yesterday the WSOP Media Office released a list of facts and tidbits that might be of interest. These are current through Event #20:
- A total of 21,047 players have participated so far in the 2009 World Series of Poker, generating prize pools that totaled…wait for it…$42,094,034. That beggars belief–over 42 million dollars in prize money. And we’re less than halfway through the Series.
- Much of that prize money will be staying in the Vegas-LA poker corridor–the leading location for money won in the Series so far is California, with $7,517,558, followed closely by Nevada with $7,188,309. In a distant third is the entire nation of Russia, with $2,214,325.
- The Russian total comes mostly from Vitaly Lunkin’s victory in the $40,000 No-Limit event, and in total Lunkin has won $1,907,667, the most so far at the 2009 WSOP.
- Andy Black has played the most events so far this year, 14. He also has the lowest cashing percentage among players who have played more than ten events, 7% (he’s cashed once so far). Ouch. UPDATE–Scratch that. Black not only cashed in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better, he made the final table last night and just went out in 6th place.
- So far India, South Korea and the Cayman Islands have a perfect score at the WSOP–every player from those nations that’s entered an event has cashed. True, that’s only four players in total, but still. The worst cashing rate by location? The District of Columbia, with one cash in 28 entries. Maybe that’s explains why so many politicians are dead-set against fully legalizing online poker.
So that’s a little neato info about the WSOP so far. So many big stories already, one of them happened last night, as Phil Ivey won his second bracelet of the Series (and 7th overall). Ivey won three bracelets in 2002, could we see a repeat of that this year? Brock Parker has also won two bracelets this year, Ville Wahlbeck won one and made two final tables…and we still have 30 events to go. There’re still a lot of stories and statistics and history to come.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Brock Parker, phil ivey, world series of poker, WSOP, wsop numbers, wsop total prize pool
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