I followed along with the November Nine coverage most of the day and most of the night, but when it hit 2AM and there were still 7 players left I gave up and hit the hay. Yesterday’s final table was the longest in WSOP history, and we’re not done yet. Darvin Moon and Joe Cada will battle heads-up for the title Monday night and if they play like they did yesterday it should be a most, um, interesting match.
Because the play yesterday was a bit…unorthodox. Yes, let’s call it that. I don’t think anyone could argue that both Moon and Cada ran good yesterday. Very good, in fact. Twice Cada was all-in holding an underpair to his opponent’s pocket pair…and flopped sets. Twice Moon put a ton of chips at risk holding Ace-Queen and found himself dominated–once by Phil Ivey’s Ace-King, once to Steven Begleiter’s pocket Queens–and won both hands, sending Ivey and Begleiter to the rail. Moon made some seriously odd moves as well, once re-raising to 15 million and then, when Begleiter moved in for 21 million and with Moon needing to put just 6 million more in for the call, Moon folded. My friend Pauly called it “The Worst Fold in Tournament Poker History” though perhaps Moon’s 15 million bet was The Worst Raise Ever.
But Moon still has a chance to win the bracelet, though he’ll have to overcome a 2-1 chip deficit to Cada, who at one point was seriously short-stacked before doubling up then winning those two huge hands where he was a 4-1 dog going into the flop. If you’re gonna run good, really really good, the final table of the WSOP Main Event isn’t a bad place for it to happen. And goodness knows it should make for some exciting TV come Tuesday. I saw pics taken from the Penn and Teller theater and the stage looked awesome, and the huge crowds that filled the space (at least for the first eight hours or so) lent it a real major-sporting-event feel. From what I read Cada’s supporters were an especially obnoxious lot, with lots of alcohol consumed and some inappropriate shouts coming from that part of the room. Irritating perhaps if you’re rooting for someone else, but it should again make for great television
I don’t envy the ESPN producers who had to endure an 18-hour final table and then are working frantically to turn that footage into a finished show in 48 hours. Nor did I envy my poker-blogging brethren who dug their trenches and fought the good fight all day and all night (and part of the next day). Those of you who have attended a final table understand why poker, for all it’s charms, will never be a major spectator sport. It takes a long time to play a final table, especially a fairly deep-stacked one. And not every hand is a riveting clash of titans marshaling their stack for the Final Confrontation. It took 276 hands to eliminate seven players, and that’s a long day’s work.
I may live-blog the broadcast on Tuesday, give my impressions of what went on (which of course is MUCH easier than covering the event live!) and experience the final table the way most people do, on TV in a (mercifully) edited format. Should be an interesting show, especially as we don’t know yet how it all ends.
For most of the players in this year’s Main Event physically getting there was NOT half the fun. Getting to the Rio itself is no big deal, but then the blistering sun punishes you while walking across the parking lot, and then you have to deal with the anxious crowds in the halls. But for most the real journey doesn’t begin until security throws open the Amazon Room doors and let’s everyone inside.
Of course Phil Hellmuth doesn’t run with the pack. Once again this year he made a grand entrance into the Main Event, and this year he (and everyone else responsible for pulling this off) went far beyond anything we’ve seen before. Phil was borne to the front of the Rio in a sedan chair, and then escorted by 11 Gladiators and 100 Muses to his seat at the feature table. Well, rather than describe it why not just show what it looked like:
As we all waited in the broiling sun for Phil to appear I found myself looking at the ladies dressed as “gladiators” and found myself wondering “How the heck did they do that?” And by that I mean the extensive body-paint that each gladiator was wearing. The straps on the shoulders and the UB logos on their backs–they’re painted on. Speaking as someone with zero artistic ability my mind tried (and failed) to figure out how they did it. Each model looked identical, and I knew they had to paint them all that morning. How’d they pull it off?
Well, wonder no more, as there’s a behind-the-scenes video of the models being prepared before Phil’s grand entrance (and video of his arrival as well). Kinda neat to see it all from begining to end…still can’t believe that a lot of the decorations were painted freehand. I couldn’t have managed that in a million years. Anyway, enjoy:
Entering the Amazon Room dressed as Caesar, with 111 young women in tow. How, exactly, do you top that for 2010? Do you even try? Or do you go for something totally different. Some of my fellow wags on media row discussed what Phil might try next year for his entrance, here’s a few of the ideas that were bandied about:
A jet-pack. This was actually the most frequently-raised option, that Phil might streak down the Strip in a Space-Age jet pack before banking left and soaring over I-15 to the Rio. Or, maybe, even swooping through the open doors and streaking down the hallway, hovering over the Feature Table before gently alighting upon his seat. Now THAT would be an entrance, though with a jet-pack there would be the very real possibily of a hilarious tragic accident. Phil bonking into a palm tree or knocking over a gaggle of fans like so many duckpins would not be an auspicious start to the Main Event.
Sky-dive into the Main Event. Phil jumps out of an airplane with, say, 11 (or more, depending how the 2010 Series goes) precision jumpers. Black-and-gold smoke billowing from his boots, Phil would gently touch down at the Rio and, still at a trot, detach himself from his chute and race to his seat still dressed in his custom-made jump gear. The problem with this idea is that landing at a precise location ain’t that easy, and what with all the power lines criss-crossing Vegas a near-miss could be a real problem. Also the searing Vegas sun baking the asphalt probably creates some wicked thermals, and I can just see Phil floating above the Rio, borne aloft by powerful updrafts, carried by the breeze until he’s finally able to touch down in coyote/tumbleweed country. Which could lead to hilarious uncomfortable circumstances.
Phil the Ninja. Instead of a Hollywood production leading to his Main Event arrival, Phil infiltrates the tournament by stealth. Dressed head-to-toe in black Neoprene and suspended from the Amazon Room rafters hours before play begins, Phil suddenly appears out of nowhere, throwing a handful of flash-powder on the table and descending Mission Impossible style via a filament-thin zipline. Once in his seat he pulls out a razor-sharp katana and cuts the deck in two with a glittering blade. THIS idea I like, it reinvents the whole big entrance idea and inspires a different sort of awe. It would add an aura of mystery, as everyone knows Phil ALWAYS makes a big entrance and, yet, no one seems have a clue what it might be. And no one manages to figure it out before…they’re dead. Figuratively speaking, of course.
So these are just a few ideas, please feel free to contribute your own in the comments. Now’s the time to brainstorm, because there’s only about 49 weeks until the 2010 Main Event kicks off.
I’ve been home for 48 hours and the “real world” is finally starting to feel more real and less surreal. Doing laundry, scrambling an egg, grocery shopping…these mundane chores are an absolute delight after seven weeks in Vegas. Of course, even though the Rio is no longer the center of the poker universe, the World Series of Poker isn’t over yet. It’s just gone on hiatus until November 7th, when the November Nine returns to the Rio to determine the next World Champion.
And that’s the weird thing about leaving Vegas now that the final table of the Main Event is delayed–you don’t know who wins. Who takes home the lion’s share of the money. Who enjoys the ultimate triumph and who sufferes the ultimate heartbreak. You know, the good stuff.
So I’m not quite ready to leave Vegas behind, not quite ready to put the World Series in the rear-view mirror. Because the November Nine will be coming up sooner than you think. And when it does Joseph Cada will be right there, sitting at the final table and trying to take his place among poker’s immortals.
There is a story in the Detroit News today about Joseph Cada, who is the youngest member of the November Nine. Here’s what it looked like on the front page:
There’s a line from the article I thought was a bit amusing. Here’s Joe’s mother, Anne Cada:
“We had 15 people all huddled around the computer getting updates,” she said Thursday. “There was a delay in what’s going on there and the updates on the computer and all the sudden I got a call from Joe and all he said was ‘I made it.’ The place just erupted with the loudest ovation.”
I found it amusing because some of my friends were writing the updates that Joe’s mom was reading, and as I watched the crowd going nuts after Darvin Moon eliminated Jordan Smith in tenth place I took this shot of Joe, who was probably talking to his mon:
We thought, based on stack sizes, the blinds, the rapidly escalating payouts, that it would take a very, very long time to get down from 27 to nine. Last year we didn’t finish until 4:30AM. The year before it took even longer to get to the final table. And with more chips on the table and a slower structure, we all thought we’d be playing until, oh, dawn.
We thought wrong.
We have reached the final table of the 2009 Main Event and the second November Nine is set. As has been the case all day and all night, it was Darvin Moon who was the catalyst. Already the huge chipleader, Moon called a raise by Jordan Smith with pocket eights and flopped top set. All the money went in after the flop and that’s when Smith saw that his pocket Aces had been cracked wide open. The 5h on the turn gave Smith a gutshot draw, but the 10h fell on the river and pandemonium broke out among the already raucous crowd.
Here’s the lineup for the November Nine (chipcounts are still being verified by PokerNews):
Seat 1: Darvin Moon
Seat 2: James Akenhead
Seat 3: Phil Ivey
Seat 4: Kevin Schaffel
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter
Seat 6: Eric Buchman
Seat 7: Joe Cada
Seat 8: Antoine Saout
Seat 9: Jeff Shulman
And for those who have complained that the last few Main Event final tables lacked star power, I direct your attention to Seat 3, where Phil Ivey resides. Ivey may get the lion’s share of the attention over the next four months as he goes for his third bracelet of 2009 and his first World Championship, but there are eight other stories we’ll be hearing until the fall. And Darvin Moon, with something in the neighborhood of 60 million chips, will be one of the most talked-about players in poker.
Much, much more on this tomorrow and in the coming days. Heck, in the coming months. It’ seems impossible to believe but it’s true–the 2009 World Series of Poker is on hiatus until November.
Not that the action wasn’t exciting before the dinner break, but upon our return things got really interesting. Actually we had an interesting encounter on the way back from dinner–a gentleman in a blue shirt with ITALIA printed across the front was being handcuffed just down from the Sao Paulo restaurant. Apparently he’d staggered into the Amazon Room, drunk as the proverbial skunk, and refused to leave. Apparently the arrival off officers from the LVPD motivated him to action and he got halfway to the casino before he was apprehended. There’s something about the sound of handcuffs going click-click-click…
And then once we took our seats and play resumed it was Jamie Robbins who showed the crowd what it takes to get out of jail. All in with pocket tens to Joe Cada’s pocket Aces, Robbins needed to hit a two-outer on the river to stay alive. The dealer duly slapped the 10h on the felt and the crowd went “OOOOOHHHH!” en masse as Robbins’ sucked out at the best possible time. Seriously, how many two-outers does on hit on the river in one’s lifetime? And one time that you do it’s when there are 14 players left in the Main Event. Wow.
And that two-outer ended up being worth $263,708 (at least) to Robbins, because shortly after that hand both Ben Lamb and James Calderaro were eliminated and the surviving players hit another pay jump. Robbins may be shortstacked, but he’s now guaranteed at least $896,700.
Eric Buchman is the chip leader with 33.8 million, followed closely by Steven Begleiter with 30.3 million. Billy Kopp, who was the chipleader at the start of play, sits with almost 19 million after slipping badly during the day. And Phil Ivey, perhaps the most feared poker player in the world, bides his time with 6.1 million. Waiting. Waiting.
When play wrapped up last night the talk around the room was how long it would take to reduce the field from 27 players to the November Nine. “A long, LONG time,” was the consensus, though the particulars were up for some debate. One friend said that anyone who thought we’d wrap up before 7AM was crazy. I took the under on that, but I thought we’d still be here when the Dawn touches the Rio with her crimson fingertips.
Well, we’ve been playing for just three-and-a-half hours and we’re halfway there. We’re down to 18 players and consolidating to the two feature tables. Can they players keep up this up? The math says that as the stacks deepen, and the payouts dramatically increase, the pace will slow. The players will tighten up until the squeak. The deliberations will drag on and on and on. And last year we got down to 18 without much fuss…and Dean Hamrick wasn’t eliminated in 10th until 4:30 in the morning.
So, we shall see. The news so far is that Billy Kopp has a monster chip stack, 26.2 million to Darvin Moon’s 2nd-place stack of 18 million. Phil Ivey has slipped way down, to just 5.5 million. And Antonio Esfandiari was one of the early casualties, going out in 24th place. But all that’s happened in the first two levels–we may play many, many more before the night (and day) are done.
A few quick pics from today. The main Feature Table:
Billy Kopp, at the start of play today:
Joseph Cada:
George Caragiorgas, who was eliminated in 20th place:
We’re down to 28 players, and play will cease for the night when we hit 27. Tomorrow, we’ll play down to the November Nine, and already there’s speculation flying about how long it’ll take to reduce the field by two-thirds. A friend who covered the 22-hour WSOP-E final table and the 19-hour H.O.R.S.E. final table this year says she thinks we’ll be playing tomorrow until 7AM Thursday morning. Most of my media mates are favoring the under on that, but I don’t know, she’s an expert on super-marathon poker sessions.
Billy Kopp is still the chip leader but the field has caught up to him. Darvin Moon is just a few thousand behind, and lurking just under two million away is the fearsome figure of Phil Ivey. Stephen Begleiter has around 11.8 million, and the other player in eight figures is CardPlayer publisher Jeff Shulman, who seems to have cornered the market on the orange 5,000 chips:
After losing players every few minutes before the break and one immediatelyafter, play has slowed. We’ve had I think two all-ins but the short-stacks doubled through and now the players are hunkering down, not wanting to be the last player to see his tournament end before Day 8. And we’ll probably see the same sort of behavior tomorrow, so maybe 7AM isn’t that that outlandish a target.
But we’ll see. And here’s a bit of what I saw today. Billy Kopp, late in the day:
Jesse Haabak, stylin’
George Caragiorgas has been sitting right along the rail all day in a spot where I can’t get a good shot of him (those of us wearing red media badges aren’t allowed on the floor, limiting my angles of attack). But I did get this one:
The Amazon Room might be 3/4 empty, but the part still in use is still packed with fans straining to see the action, especially at the Feature Table:
Gotta lose one more before we shut down for the night. Could happen in five minutes…could happen just after dawn. Gotta wait and see.
UPDATE: It took closer to five minutes than five hours to get down to 27. Joe Ward was eliminated in about the worst possible way–his AK had Jamie Robbins’ AQ dominated through the flop and the turn, but the Qh spiked on the turn to give Robbins the pot and bring a crushing end to Ward’s Main Event. Here’s a shot of Ward yesterday, in better circumstances.
That’s it for tonight, play will resume at noon and not end until the we know the latest incarnation of the November Nine. Will that happen on Wednesday, or at lunchtime Thursday? Nothing to do but wait and see.
So let’s say you’re Billy Kopp, and you’re the chip leader in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. You have about 4 million more than the player in second place. This is a good situation, yes? You’re already guaranteed a nice payday, but you’re in prime position to make a run at the $8,546,435 first prize and the ultimate poker glory. Now, what would be the absolute worst thing that could possibly happen? Well, how about this:
That is Phil Ivey sitting directly to Billy’s left. Phil Ivey, winner of two bracelets this year, seven overall, and considered by most to be the best poker player on the planet. Phil Ivey. With chips. In position. Watching every move you make, every breath you take.
The good news for Billy is that Ivey took a hit a bit ago, doubling up Blair Rodman and reducing his stack to just south of 9 million. The bad news is…Ivey’s still there. And he’s probably gonna be there for a good long while. This is a perfect example of how there’s more to luck in poker than how the cards play out–your table draw and seat assignments can hugely affect play. If Kopp had position on Ivey he could be far more comfortable opening pots, knowing that Ivey and his huge stack were out of the hand.
But that’s not the reality on the ground, and so far Kopp hasn’t shown an adversion to mixing it up with Ivey and putting chips in the pot. And let’s remember that while Ivey is Ivey, Billy Kopp is the chip leader. There are 43 players left, we’ll play until we’re down to 27. And then let’s see how the Kopp and Ivey show played out.
This is Day 7 of the Main Event, though we actually started play 12 days ago. Twelve days of poker to reduce 6,464 to the 54 who are still alive. 54 players, 54 names that might be the next to join the Ring of Champions that line the Amazon Room walls. The ESPN camera teams are swarming around the truncated playing floor, swooping in every time a dealer shouts, “All in and call!”
Media access has been severely restricted, pretty much only ESPN and PokerNews are allowed on the floor and the “moat” for media that’s just inside the spectator rail means we can’t catch the action or take the sort of photos we’d like. I did get a picture of Billy Kopp, and if you’re not sure who that is you might want to start doing some research, because he’s the chip leader at the Main Event with almost 14.5 million.
Kopp has had a great World Series, final-tabling the $5,000 No-Limit Hold-Em event (he finished 8th) and nearly making a second final table when he finished 11th in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold-Em tournament. Kopp has nearly a four-million chip lead over his closest pursuers, and we’re just deep enough now that can’t help thinking that Kopp will be there at the end. But we’re not so deep that Kopp is even a lock to make the November Nine. Still too much poker to be played, the money is starting to get big, the pressure as well, and there are 53 other players in the field who think that before too long, they’ll be where Billy Kopp is right now. At the top.
