Friday, July 17, 2009 - P0ker J0
Hello to all in UB land:
This week flew by faster than any week in history. I have no idea how it happened but the days just seemed to melt into one another. Well the WSOP final table is confirmed and what a final table it is. All those nail biting hours watching the players slowly drop off until the final 9 seemed to take forever. I can only imagine the emotions flying around. So now we wait and wait until it gets cold again and the final table to play out. Wow another poker season in Vegas over.
Now we look forward to Aruba. Wow again – it just seems like I got home from Aruba. As most of you know, being our signature event, Aruba is more like a family reunion than a poker tournament. This year will prove to be even bigger and better as we celebrate UB’s 10th anniversary. My entire pro line up will be in attendance so it should be a blast. I am waiting for Miss C to get back from Vegas so I can get her drunk enough to consider booking Bon Jovi as the band! Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me folks! This could be a hard sell! Stay tuned for more details as they are bound to emerge in the coming weeks.
Speaking of fun – I think I watched one of the funniest videos ever last night at the expense of one of my pros – Adam “roothlus” Levy. Check this out – you will die laughing. Knowing him like I do makes this video even funnier. I’m sure you will laugh as hard as I did – and don’t forget to tease him about it when you see him at the tables.
Anyway we have LOTS of fun announcements next week so stay tuned and put your seatbelts on – it’s gonna be a fun ride!
Until next week – P0ker J0 out! xoxoox
Tags: Adam "Roothlus" Levy, adam levy, Aruba, Bon Jovi, WSOP
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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
We’ve lost over 1,000 players during Day 2B of the Main Event, and to put that in some perspective that’s $10 million in entry fees left behind for the survivors. Ten million bucks invested with the best of intentions and the highest of hopes, gone in just a few hours.
Unfortunately one of those deposed today was Adam “Roothlus” Levy, and his unhappy tale is the stuff of nightmares. I’m not sure which is the worse way to go–a gut-wrenching bad beat, or betrayed by a cold deck. The latter is the fate that befell Adam–he flopped a set, only to have his opponent flop a larger set. That’s a receipe for disaster and that’s just what happened to Roothlus–sitting there with a set he lay in wait as his opponent took forever to decide what to do. Or, that’s what Adam thought his opponent was doing. He tweeted that he hadn’t heard the other player announce “All in” (his opponent didn’t move in his chips) and they sat there looking at each other waiting for the other to act. When Adam realized what had happeend he apologized for the inadvertant slowroll and turned over his set…only to find that he was drawing to a single out. That out didn’t hit, and Adam was out of the Main Event. He tweeted that “lol” was his reaction, which is better than the “bos” mine would’ve been (barf on shoes).
Still alive today are Phil Hellmuth, holding court on the Feature Table, and Scott Ian, who is competing with Phil to see who will be the last member of Team UltimateBet standing. And with a full week before the November Nine is official determined, it may be an equally long time before we know who wins that particular bragging right as well.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, adam levy, Poker Poker Poker, Scott Ian, world series of poker, WSOP
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Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
What with all the furor today over who didn’t get to play, let’s pause a moment to talk about those who ARE playing today. Including one Team UB member who is making his 2009 World Series of Poker debut, Scott Ian. Scott has been touring in Europe in support of Anthrax’s new album, Worship Music, and just made it into Vegas yesterday. And already he’s won a big pot with pocket Aces to boost his stack to over 40,000.
Two other players looking to make a big, final splash at the Main Event are Adam “Roothlus” Levy and Michael Binger, who are among the 2,809 players who are shoehorned into every nook and cranny of the Rio for play today.
One player who exited the tournament much too early was Matt “Wiscomurray” Murray, who was eliminated just before the dinner break. I saw him in the Phil Hellmuth lounge during the break and when he told me he’d been eliminated I said, “Oh, I’m sorry…I did get a pic of you, though.” Then I thought about what I said and added, “I’m sure that’s a great comfort right now”. Sometimes I can be a freakin’ idiot.
One player I didn’t get a picture of today was Matt Graham, who was eliminated from the Main Event while I was attending Jeffrey Pollack’s meeting earlier today. But I did get quite a few shots of Matt earlier in the Series, like when he won his second WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event:
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, adam levy, Anthrax, Matt Graham, Michael Binger, Scott Ian, world series of poker, Worship Music, WSOP
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Sunday, June 21, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The $1,500 No-Limit Hold-Em event was nearing the bubble and I ran over to the Brasilia Room with my camera. I knew that both Adam “Roothlus” Levy and Brandon Cantu were still very much alive in the event–in fact, Adam twittered just a few minutes earlier that he’d won a big pot with pocket Kings against A-K that had probably moved him to the head of the chip counts. And as I double-timed through the hallways I looked up at the flatscreen scoreboard on the wall and saw that he spoke the truth:
Levy #1, Cantu #6. And as I walked into the Brasilia Room during hand-for-hand play it seemed that Brandon wasn’t content with his current standing, as I found him stacking a pot as the dealers stood to indicate their table had completed their hand. “OK Brandon, stop bullying,” a player at the table said, advice Cantu didn’t seem inclined to follow.
I stood off to the side as they finished hand-for-hand play (two players busted at the same time and so split the prize money for 270th place) and found Roothlus staring across the table at a player with all his chips in the middle. Roothlus had chips in there too and I saw that his pocket eights were trailing his opponent’s pocket Jacks. The Jacks held up and within seconds of my arrival he’d lost a decent chunk of his stack. “Now they want to take my picture,” he said as I guiltily pointed my camera his way and snapped off a few shots as the hand came to an unhappy end.
According to PokerNews Adam still has around 110K, still putting him within striking distance of the chip lead, and Cantu I think has far more than the 86,600 PokerNews is giving him credit for (he tweeted an hour ago that he had around 135K as the bubble burst). So Adam took a hit, Brandon took a bunch of pots, and both Team UB players are primved to make a deep run in this event.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Adam "Roothlus" Levy, adam levy, Brandon Cantu, Poker Poker Poker, ub, ultimatebet, ultimatebet world series of poker, world series of poker, world series of poker photographs, world series of poker photos, world series of poker pics, WSOP
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Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
There was only one new tournament that started today–the $2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold-Em. One player who should be quite used to playing with all that extra space at the table is Brock Parker, who won his first WSOP bracelet yesterday when he defeated Daniel Negreanu heads-up for the Six-Handed Limit Hold-Em title. Parker is a well-known and highly-decorated online player, and one of his signature victories came during the first UltimateBet Online Championship, where Parker (who plays at UB under the name “Maria Nuccia”) took down the Main Event. Yesterday he won his first bracelet and, from the look of, appears to have built a sizable stack today:
Also playing in the six-handed event is Adam “Roothlus” Levy, who started strong and has avoided some traps to avoid disaster. What sort of traps? After the big stack at the table limped under-the-gun Adam decided to smooth-call with pocket Kings. The flop came A-Q-Q and after Adam folded when his opponent led out the UTG player showed…pocket Aces. A ragged flop might’ve spelled disaster, but that’s not what happened and Roothlus is still very much in the game with 43,000 chips.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, adam levy, Brock Parker, Maria Nuccia, six-handed no-limit, t soprano, world series of poker, WSOP
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Saturday, June 6, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
It’s been relatively cool in Vegas the past week, the temperatures in the high seventies, for cryin’ out loud. That’s due to change over the next few days, with the mercury soaring to the high nineties by next weekend. I’m not that concerned about that, as I spend about 99% of my time inside the Rio. And so what concerns me at the moment is how doggone cold it is in here.
It got cold last night, right around the dinner break I asked a few of my compatriots if it was a bit nippy in there. The general consensus was that yes, it was freakin’ cold in there, and as I’m battling a head cold I was glad to hear that my chills were due to the temperature, not whatever bug has me under siege. As I took my seat on an empty Media Row this morning it was downright chilly in here. Until the Amazon Room fills with portable heat sources (i.e. people) you can start shivering before too long. The room is packed right now, but as the fields thin down the temperature will start to dip again.
And so as I made my rounds earlier today I was surprised to see Tiffany Michelle dressed more for a summer afternoon than a day locked up in the Amazonian meat locker:
Look, I’m from Pittsburgh and I wouldn’t dare bare my arms and shoulders on a day such as this. Maybe the combination of thermal and nervous energy generated by nine poker players is enough to make things comfortable. Maybe.
I much preferred the wardrobe selection of Adam “Roothlus” Levy, who went for a zip-up hoodie. I remember my Mom always telling me to wear a hat when I went outside on a cold day because 95% of your body heat escapes through your head. Personally I think Mom was full of (deleted) on that one, but I guess it’s a good idea to keep your brain warm on a cold day.
Its important to be comfortable when you’re playing poker, you don’t want to be lamenting your failure to bring a jacket when confronted with an unexpected check-raise. The same is true for poker reporters. Might be time to visit the WSOP Shop, see if they have any stylish pullovers this year.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, adam levy, amazon room temperatures, cold amazon room, Tiffany "Tiffany M" Michelle, world series of poker, WSOP
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Friday, June 5, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The $2,500 No-Limit Hold-Em event just started and as I usually do I went out in search of the Team UB players in the field. And during my wanderings I came across a quartet of our players, each dressed in a relatively monochromatic way. So I thought I’d go with the motif and post some black-and-white photos:
Tiffany Michelle, catching me just as I triggered the shutter:
Matt Graham, contemplating a re-raise from PokerRoad Radio’s Court Harrington:
Liv Boeree, recording in minute detail every little thing going on at her table:
And Adam Levy, switching his allegiance from Barcelona to Chelsea today (”hey, I just like soccer,” he said.) Wonder if there’s an Arsenal jersey hanging in his closet:
Event #13 just went on its first break of the day, the $2,000 No-Limit Hold-Em restart is about to, uh, restart, with Phil Hellmuth and Brandon Cantu still in the running. Don’t see Phil over there yet, not that that’s a great surprise.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, adam levy, Liv Boeree, Matt Graham, Tiffany "Tiffany M" Michelle, ub players at wsop, world series of poker, WSOP
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
So far I’ve managed to miss Adam “Roothlus” Levy in every event he’s played so far. This despite the fact that several times I puposely went a-lookin’ for him. The last time he’d been knocked out shortly before I started my fruitless search and so when I read one of his tweets that said he was playing in today’s 6-handed Hold-Em event (and had already added 1,200 to his stack) I grabbed my camera and marched onto the floor with a purpose.
Adam wasn’t in the Amazon Room–that would’ve been too easy. But once I got to Brasilia he wasn’t hard to spot, not with him wearing a sky-blue Barcelona jersey:
Of course you soccer football fans know that Barcelona won the Champions League final against Manchester United last week. And chances are you poker fans know that Peter Eastgate won the World Championship last November heads-up against Ivan Demidov. As I was looking for Roothlus, I came across this scene–Eastgate and Demidov sitting side-by-side:
How would you like to show up at your starting table and find the defending World Champ and the runner-up directly to your left? That’s what happened to a guy wearing a snazzy Pittsburgh Pirates cap, who looked over to his friend on the rail and said, “Where’s the cameras, man? Where’s ESPN?”. Maybe ESPN wasn’t there, but I was, and it was kinda neat to see those two sitting at the same table again.
Tags: Adam "Roothlus" Levy, adam levy, adam levy ub, adam levy world series of poker, adam levy wsop, ivan demidov, peter eastgate
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