Saturday, July 25, 2009 - Phil Hellmuth
Many years ago my license plate in California was 7poker7 and Phil Ivey had just won his third World Series of Poker (WSOP) poker tourney. My hats off to Phil, he always plays great poker and takes advantage of some really good luck. He is after all at the final table of the 2009 WSOP. Layne “Back to back” Flack was having a great tourney as well, he has won the first two no limit hold’em events that year (back to back!). Johnny Chan took the all-time money lead at the WSOP from me and TJ, and Johnny were having a great years as well. TJ was having a great year, and if his As-Ks would have beat Layne’s 9-9 (they were all-in before the flop for about $350,000 apiece), then he would have the all-time money list lead instead of Johnny (Johnny finished second to Layne, and TJ third in the last no limit event).
In 1993, I won the first two no limit hold’em events, and three WSOP titles that year. Then I went on and took the all-time money lead at the WSOP. Ah, the past…unfortunately the past isn’t all that it is cracked up to be in today’s “what have you done for me lately” society. The WSOP is a tough tournament to digest when you’re a little bit off of your game or the cards refuse to let you win (personally, I’ve been a little bit off of my game for the most part, and a little bad luck at the wrong time has cost me some final tables as well). Five weeks of WSOP futility is enough to drive you stark raving mad! Wait a minute though, I thought to myself, I still have a full week left at the WSOP, and the “Big One” to play in before my year is blown (not to mention the Bellagio’s $10,000 buy-in event). Believe me, I’m ready to turn things around soon I thought.
How do I make seven top fifteens back then in 24 events, and then only one top fifteen in the first twenty two events the next year? How does Chris Ferguson do roughly the same thing (six one year followed by 2 the next year)? How does Men “the Master” Nguyen fan (without even cashing once!) 80 tournaments in a row, and then explode at the Taj Mahal and finish first, second and first in three consecutive days (and make seven final tables)? I believe that there is some bio-rhythm like element in poker that is often over looked by us poker players. Some days I can sit down in a tourney after not playing poker for a month, and just play so well that I am shocked. When this happens, then I know that I will play great poker for the next 40 days or so (experience has shown me that this is the case for me). Other times, I can’t seem to execute my game plan very well. In both cases – stellar play and sub-par play – I keep roughly the same routine as far as exercise, sleep, diet etc…
If my theory is right (and I’m pretty sure it is based on the “streaks” that most great tournament players fall into), then I can only hope that this period of sub-par play is about to end I thought. I had been playing sub-par from April 9th till May 12th that year, isn’t one month enough to suffer from “bad bio-rhythms’?” All I wanted to read was “Phil Hellmuth is the 2002 WSOP match play Champion” and “Phil Hellmuth is the 2002 World Champion of Poker”. My California license plate 7poker7 (the “7” represents seven WSOP wins) at the time but I was hoping to change it to 9poker9 or 8poker8 real soon. I just hoped that my bio-rhythms changed soon enough for me to get the California license plate 9poker9 in 2002! Well now that the WSOP is over for another year, I’m hoping that in 2010 my license will read 12poker12!
Tags: Bellagio, Chris Ferguson, johnny chan, Layne Flack, phil ivey, Taj Mahal, WSOP
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Saturday, July 4, 2009 - Phil Hellmuth
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As we approach another WSOP in Vegas – I look back and recall WSOPs from years gone by. Here is some commentary from years ago. Hope y’all enjoy.
I would like to say that I am proud of the WSOP itself. Does that sound kind of stupid to you? Then let me explain–if only you could have seen the final six in the Big One in 2000. Discovery channel had a wall of technical equipment and at least four cameras surrounding the action. There were two separate live internet audio broadcasts going on at the same time.
Let’s not forget that we had over 510 players put up ten thousand dollars each to play in the final event! As Johnny Chan said, “I don’t know about the rest of the country, but there sure were a lot of people wandering around the Horseshoe with ten thousand dollars in their pockets!”
The worldwide press was out in full force for the WSOP. It was amazing to watch the cameras going off when the WSOP’s 2000 winner, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, was posing after the event ended. To the point about the worldwide press, I personally was interviewed during the WSOP by Geraldo Rivera (NBC), E! Entertainment, the Discovery Channel, and many magazine writers as well. Also, I am proud of Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and T.J. Cloutier for the way that they played poker and handled themselves throughout the final two days. In my opinion, they both deserved to win the World Championship’s this year. These are just some of the reasons that I am proud of the 2000 World Series of Poker.
There were some great surprises at the 2000 WSOP, including Jim McManus and Jeff Schulman. Jim McManus is a novelist/poet/writer who was sent out to the WSOP to cover it for Harpers magazine (and eventually wrote a 16 page article on it, which turned into his book, “Positively Fifth Street”). Jim decided to play some satellites for the Big One and whoosh–he finished fourth in the main event. Jeff Schulman played a fantastic game of poker throughout this year’s WSOP. Maybe because Jeff hasn’t been there before, he was moving $200,000 to $1,000,000 stacks around like they were water. What Jeff lacked in experience, he more than made up for with fearlessness and great ‘reads’ on the rest of the field.
Here is a hand that came up between Jeff Schulman and Chris Ferguson with seven players left on poker’s biggest stage (WSOP 2000). Remember, when the WSOP gets down to six players, they end for the day and come back the next day to battle in front of the world for fame and fortune ($1,500,000 for first place). Jeff had been moving his chips around beautifully, he was raising and re-raising (presumably when his opponents had nothing) almost every hand. The blinds were $15,000-$30,000 and the antes were $3,000 per player, when Jeff opened for $200,000 on the button with 7-7. Chris Ferguson decided to move all-in from the big blind with 6-6 for about $860,000. At this point, Jeff was the chip leader with over $1,500,000 and Chris was second in chips with his $860,000. After less then 20 seconds, Jeff decided to call Chris for all of his $860,000.
Wow, Jeff would start day four with over $2,300,000 in chips, and T.J. Cloutier in second place with only $600,000. Chris would finish in seventh place, but wait a minute, they didn’t flop the cards yet. Jeff wasn’t home yet—he was, however a 4 ½-to-1 favorite to win this hand. The flop was 3h-6h-10h, giving Chris the best hand, but giving Jeff a flush draw. The next card was the 5c to also give Jeff a straight draw. Now Jeff needed a heart (excepting the 5h), a seven or a four to win the pot. Chris called for (out loud), and received, a ten on the river, to make the final board 3h-6h-10h-5c-10s and give Chris the winning hand (a full house 6-6-6-10-10). Too bad for Jeff, but he kept his composure (much like I would have [Yeah, right!]) and still was in second chip position with roughly $700,000.
The rest of the story is even more brutal for Jeff–as if losing this pot wasn’t tough enough. About one round later, Jeff picked up pocket kings in the small blind and moved all-in after TJ opened for $300,000 with pocket jacks. Chris picked up pocket aces in the big blind, and Jeff ended up finishing in seventh place. So he went from 2.3 million and the chip lead going into the last day to being the next player out. Seemed like Jeff deserved better than that, but that’s poker.
Anyway, back to the 7-7 vs. 6-6 hand. (The aces versus kings is pretty natural.) I love the way that Jeff played this hand. He had been raising a lot of pots, so he opened for a huge over raise of $200,000 to send a message to Chris that he had something. Then when Chris moved in, Jeff correctly deduced that his pocket sevens were the best hand. As John Bonetti would say, “He had Chris by the throat.” It is hard to be 4 ½-to-1 favorite for all of the money, but Jeff put himself into this great position for the most important (and biggest pot) of his life.
How about the way that Chris played the hand? I don’t like his play very much, but it’s certainly not too bad. On the one hand, I like the aggressiveness of the all-in move with the pocket sixes. Chris was trying to stop Jeff from running over the table with this move. On the other hand, Jeff did send a message with the size of his raise, and Chris was in second chip position, so I could very easily see him fold his hand here and wait for a better spot to risk all of his chips. I probably would have folded the 6-6 in this situation just because it was for all of his chips and he still would have been in great chip position. I mean, why risk all of your chips in second chip position with seven players left at the WSOP?
Tags: Chris Ferguson, Geraldo Rivera, Jeff Schulman, Jim McManus, johnny chan, Phil Hellmuth, t.j. cloutier, WSOP
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Monday, June 1, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
As you might expect there’s a big crowd watching the two remaining tables of World Champions battling it out. Phil Hellmuth is still in (as of a half-hour ago he had 10k, up from the starting stack of 1,000) and they’ll play until they get down to the final nine for the final table. There are 12 players left (Brad Daugherty, Scotty Nguyen and Chris Ferguson were just eliminated) so chances are they won’t play too deep into the night. I’ve been elbowing and kidney-punching my way around the rail snapping pictures and I thought now might be a good time to share a few of them.
I have to warn you, I like grainy black-and-white pics that have that old-time feel to them, so you’ll have to indulge me if I post a lot during the Series. Truth be told, a crappy color photo can be turned into a compelling B&W pic with a little creative adjustment. I’d like to think I salvaged something from a fairly blah photo here:
That’s Robert Varkonyi, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Huck Seed, Dan Harrington, Carlos Mortensen, and Chris Ferguson. A from-the-hip snapshot captures seven World Champions.
Doyle Brunson. He’s always been The Man, he’ll always be The Man.
The always-thirsty Prince of Poker, Scotty Nguyen.
And, of course, Phil Hellmuth, wearing his game face. I think I would too, if I was in serious contention for a 1970 Corvette Stingray. And the title of Champion of Champions.
I’ll be posting a lot more photos here on the blog throughout the Series, and if you want to see those that either didn’t make the cut or couldn’t be shoehorned into a post no matter how hard I tried, they’re posted at my Flickr page. Now I’m gonna grab my machete and see if I can clear a path to Dan Harrington.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, carlos mortensen, champions invitational, Chris Ferguson, chris moneymaker, dan harrington, doyle brunson, greg raymer, Huck Seed, Phil Hellmuth, Robert Varkonyi, Scotty Nguyen, world champions invitational, world series of poker, WSOP, wsop champions invitational, wsop invitational
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Sunday, March 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Tens of millions of Americans play poker every year and so it comes as no surprise that the game fits nicely within our cultural mainstream. But with poker facing so many legal and political challenges the last few years it’s always good to be reminded that people play poker, people love poker, and people are fascinated by poker, across just about every demographic line you care to draw.
This past week The New Yorker featured an article by Alec Wilkinson about poker, one that focused primarily on Chris Ferguson but also discussed the UIGEA and the legal issues surrounding the game (you need to register to read the full article). That the pre-eminent literary magazine in the land published a positive article about poker doesn’t mean the UIGEA will repealed this afternoon (there are members of Congress who probably balk at reading so much as the back of a cereal box) but it adds to the groundswell of support poker has received in the media the last year or so.
The New Yorker has actually published a number of major articles about poker in the past, most notably two pieces by the English poet/critic A. Alvarez that he later expanded into The Biggest Game in Town, one of the leading works in the poker canon. If you haven’t read Alvarez’s articles, or The Biggest Game in Town, and you consider yourself a poker fan, shame on you.
Alvarez wrote those articles (and the book) in 1983. In 1994 he returned to World Series and wrote about fulfilling a lifelong dream–playing in the Main Event. These days it almost seems quaint that taking a seat in the Main Event would seem like such an ambitious gamble, but this was long before you had online qualifiers swelling the field into the thousands. That year there were 268 entrants and many of the players Alvarez writes about (Chan, Ungar, Hellmuth) are still well-known in the poker world today.
Alvarez wrote that article a bit less than fifteen years ago, a fact that hit me broadsides because reading that piece planted the seeds of my later love affair with the game. I actually clipped that article out of the magazine and kept it in a folder with other poker stories I came across over the years. And it was eight years later, in 2002, that I read an article that transformed my interest in poker into something akin to an obsession. Joseph Epstein reviewed Andy Bellin’s Poker Nation, Epstein first writing about his own experience playing poker while growing up in Chicago before turning to Bellin’s examination of underground New York card clubs and the current poker universe.
I devoured Poker Nation (several times, actually) and later that year something called the World Poker Tour debuted on the Travel Channel. As I watched the WPT from week-to-week I learned that thousands of folks were playing poker online, and as I considered dipping my toe into that vast aquarium some guy named Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event and $2.5 million. Poker may have suffered some legislative and political bad beats the last few years, but I think the perfect storm of the WPT, the advent of the digital world, and the Moneymaker Effect rather makes up for that. Should the UIGEA be repealed (and allegedly Barney Frank will be introducing just such a bill in early April) it might not usher in a new Golden Age of Poker…it might just help perpetuate the one we’re in right now. Five (or fifteen) years from now some budding poker player may read Wilkinson’s article and find all this UIGEA hullaballo rather silly. Let’s hope so.
Tags: a. alvarez, al alvarez, alec wilkinson, andy bellin, biggest game in town, Chris Ferguson, moneymaker effect, new yorker poker, poker nation, Poker Poker Poker, the new yorker, the new yorker poker, uigea, World Poker Tour
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Sunday, March 15, 2009 - Roothlus
…needless to say I survived it. I don’t think I’ve had a full weekend of drinking in a long long time. I’m even talking about Sunday night as well. When was the last time you went drinking on a freakin’ Sunday night? I’m usually too bummed out after losing a bunch of money to do anything on Sunday. But not this Sunday. I had time to lose $3k in all the tourneys and then go out.
The weekend started on Friday when my friend Katie and her friend Brooke came into town from L.A. The night started a bit late when we went to Caesars to sweat Chris Ferguson in the NBC Heads Up. He lost to Gabe Kaplan unfortunately but whatevs. I think he’s had a fairly good run the past few years hehe. After he busted we went to Treasure Island for some sushi at this place called Social House. It says it stays open 4PM-LATE but at 11:15PM it was closed. Really??? That’s not late. Maybe somewhere in Idaho, but definitely not in Vegas. So after a little bit of coaxing we were able to get a table…for eleven. Jeff Madsen, Brandon Cantu, and co. came along as well. This was a totally different crew from the online whiz kids I normally hang around and it was a good change of pace. Social House was pretty good and it was very enjoyable but nothing I would rave about. They did have some great sake, raspberry-infused sake. Mmmmm, so good. But more importantly how good is the word infused. I just want whatever is infused. I think the quote at the dinner table was “I love the word infused. It just sounds cool. I swear if they infused tomatoes, I’d want it!” After bunch of sake, sushi, and chats we decided to CCR(credit card roulette) for the bill of $1600 where I fortunately didn’t win and we were out. Phew.
Once we vamoosed from Social House Katie, Brooke, Joe Sebok who showed up at the end of the meal, and I decided to go to Forty-Deuce, a burlesque club at Mandalay Bay. It’s a great place to go if you really don’t want to go to a standard bar or club on a Friday night in Vegas. We spent about an hour there, did a bunch of shots, took a bunch of pictures, did a lot of dancing and then we realized it was somehow 3AM already. We decided it was it was time to go home…and keep drinking. I mean, we had to show Brooke a good time. It was only her 2nd time in Vegas. What a n0ob. I’m not sure what propelled it, but we somehow found ourselves sitting on a futon playing Truth or Dare. Yes, Truth or freakin’ Dare. Four twenty-somethings sitting on a couch playing T or D. Reeeeal mature. Somehow no one did a dare and all we did was four truths and then we all passed out. So basically we played it exactly how we used to play it back in the day where no one ever really got a dare to work.
Saturday was more of the same. We woke up at 12PM, early for me, went for some good hangover food at an omelet place called Egg And I. Nothing off the charts ridiculous but good nonetheless. Does anyone else notice that I just love talking about food? Las Vegas has so many different places to eat and a lot of them are open late as well which I absolutely adore. Anyways, we went shopping. I somehow got convinced to buy 3 pairs of dress shoes when all I wanted was one pair. I always get carried away when I go shopping. After that we went to Naked Fish for dinner which is my favorite sushi place to eat at in Las Vegas. Nobu is obviously super sick but I don’t really classify Nobu as a sushi place. The girls had to experience a good sushi restaurant especially when they think LA has the best sushi. Puhleaseee. I brought Justin “Zeejustin” Bonomo with us to the sushi restaurant and he is a super sicko orderer. When we got there I picked out 2 sushi rolls I wanted and he ordered the rest. I was in a good mood and picked up the tab.
After that we went home to get changed for the night and picked up JC Alvarado a.k.a. the Mexican Superstar and Steve O’Dwyer a.k.a. Mr. TimCaum. And no I have no idea why he calls himself TimCaum when he is clearly a Steve. We all met up with Amak, TheChronic420, and a bunch of online guys at the club X S at the new Encore casino attached to the Wynn. You know a club is cool when it’s only two letters. I might add the club has a similar layout to X S’s sister club over at the Wynn, Tryst . There were small subtle differences that made me enjoy X S much more but this blog’s already getting rather long. We don’t need to go off on ANOTHER tangent. The energy in the air was great. Everyone we were with were all low maintenance and down to just have fun. We got 6 bottles for our table full of like 12 people and I even tried to get the waitress to make us a shot I created called the Slutty Wizard. It’s got Blue Curacao, Malibu Rum, and Bacardi 151 in it and when you can, you should light it on fire. I’ve had it made for me twice successfully but am yet to have it after it was lit on fire. Oh, and the way I like to describe the taste is, for a shot with 151 in it, it tastes pretty good. So they didn’t have Blue Curacao or 151 so I had to create a new shot on the spot called the Green Goblin which is Midori, Malibu, and regular Bacardi Rum. It actually ended up being pretty damn good and it’s always cool to take a shot you created yourself hah. The night ended at 4am when Katie, JC, Brooke, and I all decided to take a cab to Café Bellagio. They have the best Banana’s Fosters waffle. It’s sooooo good and especially great drunken food. If you like Banana’s Fosters it is a must to try. I guess this turned more into a food blog this time. Like I said, Las Vegas is the best for food.
I think I’m going to cut the blog now and post again next week. This is getting pretty long and to be honest, Sunday was the craziest most random night of them all and I would much rather dedicate most of my next blog to that night. Also, maybe I’ll have something to say after I win the Bay 101. Yea, sure, why not. I’m calling my shot. Peace for now.
–Adam “Roothlus” Levy
Tags: Brandon Cantu, Chris Ferguson, Forty-Deuce, gabe kaplan, Jeff Madsen, Joe Sebok, nbc heads-up, Social House, Treasure Island
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Monday, February 9, 2009 - Annie Duke
Okay…here is something that sucks. My friends Rafe and Laura are getting married on March down in Mexico. I have had this on my schedule for months and months now because they are really dear friends. I mean if I had to list the people that I would want to make sure I went to their wedding they are pretty near the top of the list. So they looked through the poker schedule since, after all, so many of Rafe Furst’s friends are poker players. And they saw that there was a hole right at the beginning of March and they let us all know to save the date, which Joe and I did immediately.
Oh shit, the beginning of March? Don’t you worry about that, we all find out a few weeks ago that that is when the NBC Heads Up Challenge is. That, of course, affects not just me but my brother, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson and a few others. I mean how much does that suck because of any tournament in the world that is one we cannot miss. I have to play in it. I would miss a WPT (as long as it wasn’t the $25K Championship). I might even miss a few of the preliminary WSOP events. But I can’t miss the NBC event. It is just too important to be there and it would be irresponsible of me to miss it.
So now I am really sad…not just for me since I am going to miss the wedding…but more so for Rafe and Laura because so many of their close friends can’t make the wedding now and that just sucks. I miss a cool Mexican vacation but they miss their friends being there on one of the most important days of their lives.
When poker is your job it sometimes gets in the way of the other stuff in you life and that is just the way it is. Sigh.
Tags: $25K Championship, Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, NBC Heads up Challenge, WPT
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