Saturday, June 20, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
There comes a point during the seven weeks of the World Series of Poker where you stop counting how many days you’ve been there and switch to counting down the days till it’s over. We’re not quite there yet–for me it’s the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament that acts as the demarcation line. When the H.O.R.S.E. champion is crowned, that’s when you you know it’s time to gear up. Because that means the Main Event is just a few days away, and the Main Event is…well, it’s the Main Event. It’s the biggest poker tournament in the world, but of course it’s much, much more than that.
The Main Event is one of the great spectacles in all the world. Thousands of people from all over the globe, from all walks of life, converge on Las Vegas in the full furnace fury of the desert summer. They come to play a game that’s enjoyed by millions around the world, who play poker in card rooms and around kitchen tables and online while wearing their pajamas. And they play for a gargantuan prize pool, one fully funded by the players themselves, a pot of gold that dwarfs the prize money awarded to the winners of the U.S. Open golf tournament, Wimbledon, The Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500. Combined.
The 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event starts on July 3rd. Maybe it’s too soon for me to look ahead to the Main Event–there’s too much poker to be played today, tomorrow, and over the next two weeks for that. But for you, it’s not too soon. Especially if you want to PLAY in the Main Event. Because tomorrow at 5:30pm ET UltimateBet is hosting our 50-Seat Guaranteed Tournament. Fifty players, at least, will win their Main Event seat (plus $2,000 for travel and accomodations) in tomorrow’s event. The buy-in is $500+30 and no matter what UB will be sending 50 of those players to the Main Event. If the prize pool swells above the guaranteed, more Main Event packages will be awarded. It’s your chance to lock up your Main Event seat for $530, and you don’t even have to win the tournament to snag the big prize.
The Biggest Game in Town the World starts in less than two weeks. And you can take your first step toward Vegas tomorrow at 5:30pm ET at UltimateBet.
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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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Friday, June 12, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The $10,000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven World Championship will play today until a champion is crowned, and still in the running is UltimateBet’s Michael Binger. They’re down to ten players (and they’ll play five-handed until the final table of seven is reached) and Michael is second from the bottom in chips, but it’s a no-limit game, one double up could provide all the momentum required to power Binger to his first WSOP bracelet. Play will resume at 2pm and will no doubt draw a big crowd on the rail for this star-studded, action-packed gambling game.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, deuce to seven, Michael Binger, ub, ub world series of poker, ub wsop, ultimatebet, ultimatebet world series of poker, world series of poker, WSOP
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Sunday, June 7, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The $10,000 Omaha/8 World Championship event just started over in the Brasilia Room, and to say the field is stacked would be an understatement. Walking through the room the question wasn’t “Who do I know here?”, it was “Who DON’T I know here?”. Seated at one of those tables was Annie Duke, who arrived to find Greg Raymer, Ted Lawson and Bruno Fitoussi at her table. As well as Thang Luu, who won the $1,500 Omaha/8 event held last week. He also won that event last year. And came second the year before that. Annie at least has Luu on her left, but seated directly to her right is the 2004 World Champion:
Also in the field today are Michael Binger, who scooped a pot as I shot this pic:
And a jovial Brandon Cantu:
Also in today’s field is tournament director extraordinaire Matt Savage, who of course has helmed the Aruba Poker Classic the past two years and turned it into one of the best-run and best-structured tournaments in the world. Matt played in the $1,500 Omaha/8 event last week–cashing in 60th place–and once again he’s put down the microphone and taken to the felt.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Annie Duke, Brandon Cantu, bruno fitoussi, greg raymer, Matt Savage, Michael Binger, Poker Poker Poker, thang luu, ub wsop, ultimatebet world series of poker, ultimatebet wsop, world series of poker, WSOP
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
One of the challenges of covering massive poker tournaments like today’s $1,500 No-Limit event is…finding out where the hell everyone is. As I walked the floors of the Amazon, Brasilia and Miranda Rooms earlier today I was on the lookout for Team UB players and anyone wearing our familiar black-and-gold logo. I found Tiffany Michelle and Liv Boeree (admittedly they’re easier to spot than most) but I saw when I saw a tweet from Brandon Cantu that said he had around 58,000 in chips. And as the highest count on the PokerNews page was around 31,000 it was quite possible that Brandon was the chip leader of the tournament.
So now all I had to do was track him down. Not so easy a task, as the $1,500 is still spread amongst three rooms. And when you’re walking up and down the aisles scanning nine faces in a nanosecond before turning your head and doing the same to the table across the way, you could walk past your own mother without it registering. But fortunately Brandon wasn’t too hard to pick out, not with what’s an impressive chip fortress sitting before him:
Still a long, long, long way to go, but building a big stack early on gives you a bludgeon to use against your opponents from the start. And that’s especially true for a super-aggressive player like Brandon. The other players at Cantu’s table might be in for a long night.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, Brandon Cantu, ub, ub wsop, ultimatebet, ultimatebet world series of poker, world series of poker, WSOP
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Thursday, May 28, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
OK, so where’s Phil?
That was the question circling the Amazon Room as the end of Level 3 grew nigh. Like I said in my last post, Phil always shows up late, but this was pushing it even for him. It was confirmed he’d registered, there was no danger of him missing the event, we even knew that he’d be sitting at Table 70, Seat 7. He just wasn’t here. There were rumors he was planning some outrageous Main Event-style grand entrance for the swarming ESPN cameras, and I staked out Table 70 like a rancid paparazzi stalking Lindsay Lohan.
They say a watched pot never boils, but my craning neck spotted a black baseball cap with a gold UltimateBet logo knifing through the crowd. Seconds later the ropes parted and there was Phil Hellmuth in the flesh, making his 2009 World Series of Poker debut:
There was some minor commotion as Phil sidled up to his seat. “Philly’s here!” crowed Scotty Nguyen and Scott Seiver said, “The man, the myth, the legend.” The mob clustered around the rail swelled as Phil showed off copies Deal Me In, his new book featuring interviews with a number of top professionals. One of whom, Phil Ivey, took a copy and immediately started riffing through pages, perhaps looking for his chapter:
As you can see, that’s a pretty loaded table…and that doesn’t even include David “The Dragon” Pham, barely visible two seats over from Ivey. There’s enough star power at that table to draw an army of railbirds and platoons of photographers, but I’ll bob and weave my way back there and see how Phil progresses…now that he’s actually playing in the tournament.
Tags: david pham, Phil Hellmuth, phil hellmuth $40K, phil hellmuth entrance, phil hellmuth wsop, phil ivey, Scotty Nguyen, ub, ub wsop, ultimatebet, ultimatebet world series of poker, ultimatebet wsop
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Monday, May 25, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Covering the World Series of Poker was one of those things I dreamed about but never thought I’d actually do. Some people dream about winning a bracelet and millions of dollars; I dreamt about taking pictures of that guy and writing a story about it. Yes, I’m not a well person. Anyway, in June of 2007 I found myself sitting behind my laptop in the Amazon Room, waiting for the $5,000 Mixed Hold-Em event to begin. I grooved on the nervous energy buzzing through that enormous room, waiting for Jeffrey Pollack to finish his welcome speech and hand the mike over the Jamie Gold. The 2006 World Champion said, “Shuffle Up and Deal!”, and we were off.
And then it took about ten seconds for all hell to break loose. You may recall that Harrah’s decided that year to use a different style of playing card, one that had tiny numbers and suits in the corner (so you could peek at your cars just by lifting them an inch) and then large numbers and suits mirroring each other in the middle. Many of the players had never seen these cards before, and they didn’t like them. No siree. Mike Matusow leapt out of his chair and said, “Did you see these cards? You can’t see the cards? Where’s Jeffrey Pollack?” Players started standing up and walking around the room raising a ruckus. Johnny Chan threatened to quit the tournament. Doyle Brunson (Doyle Brunson) took one look at them and said, “What the hell are these?”
I tell this story to illustrate that when you go to the World Series of Poker, chances are things aren’t gonna go as you expect. Heck, when we all went back to Vegas in 2008 the big story going in was, “What will be the big problem this time?”. The registration lines, the food, the structures? And it turned out that the big story was that there WEREN’T any big problems. Harrah’s ran an outstanding event from start to finish, and even the decision to delay the Main Event final table until November translated into a 50% boost in TV ratings. Everyone is expecting the 2009 World Series of Poker to be even better, with players getting 50% more chips to start with, additional levels added to the structure, and more room in the convention center area (meaning no more players exiled to the space outside Buzio’s Restaurant). Heck, Jeffrey Pollack has even promised that the food will be even better this year (oh please, bring back the soup kitchen, it was SO good).
Of course that doesn’t mean that there won’t be periods of profound weirdness and the extremes of the human condition to enjoy. If you’re a poker fan and you’ll be in Vegas between May 28th to July 15th you simply must stop by the Rio and check out the scene. You don’t need to stay long, Vegas is too fun a town for you to spend six hours railing a poker player (unless you’re backing him), but take some time to walk around the Amazon Room, see if your favorite players are in the field, and listen to the never-ending sound of chips shuffled by the thousands.
If you’re playing in an event, especially if it’s your first WSOP tournament, I’d also recommend paying the Rio and the Amazon Room a visit before your event. Learn where to park, learn where the bathroom are. Walk around the Amazon Room and get a feel for the vibe. There’s a chance you won’t be playing in the Amazon Room, so learn where the Brasilia and other tournament rooms are. You don’t wanna walk through the door at high noon and realize you have no clue where your seat is, and I can’t tell you how many panicked players have run up to me asking where the hell they’re supposed to go. Most folks play their best poker when they’re comfortable with their surroundings, so a quick reconnoiter of the Rio can ensure you’re calm and collected when the cards are finally in the air.
If you’re going to be at the World Series for the duration, then God help your soul. Well, actually it isn’t THAT bad…so long as you don’t try to make every day in Vegas like your LAST day in Vegas. No one can survive 50 days of non-stop poker and full-bore partying, the human body wasn’t designed for that sort of abuse. My friend Nicole Gordon wrote a piece with her Top Ten Tips for Surviving the World Series of Poker, which I heartily recommend your read and put into effect. You will need to sleep. You will find planning ahead saves you endless headaches. You will find that Vegas is dangerously hot in July. When people ask me how I survive seven weeks in Vegas I sum it up this way–I keep both hands on the steering wheel. If you get into a nice routine, where you’re sleeping and eating like a normal person and drinking in moderation, you’ll be fine. If it’s June 7th and the bouncers on the afternoon shift at the Spearmint Rhino know you on a first-name basis, you may be in trouble.
I can’t believe it’s already WSOP time again, my mind is having some trouble getting around that fact. It hasn’t helped that I’ve been sick as the dog with the flu and spent the last ten days staring at the wall and losing weight. Good times, good times. I’ve been thinking of what I’m most looking forward to…
- Walking through the Rio and hearing the “Penn & Teller….doin’ tricks…” jingle by their theater 15,000 times during the Series.
- The citrus “All-In” energy drink. That’s a tasty beverage.
- The floor staff telling spectators “No Flash Photography” 15,000 times during the Series.
- That first chicken salad wrap from the Poker Kitchen
- My old friend (and older nemesis) video poker.
And, of course, writing about all the excitement and madness for you to enjoy here at the UltimateBet blog. If you’re a UB player I will do my utmost to find you and track your glorious progress through the tournament. If you see me, and I don’t see you, please stop by and say hello, I want to meet as many of our players as I can during the Series and make them famous throughout the blogosphere. This is me, by the way, working in Aruba:
The 2009 World Series of Poker, just a few days away. Unreal. I get to Vegas Wednesday evening and I’ll hit the ground running as the $40,000 No-Limit event commemorating the WSOP’s 40th-anniversary starts Thursday at noon. And that starts 50 days of people making poker history and winning millions of dollars, day after day after day. It is one of the great sporting events in the world and I can’t wait for it to start.
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Monday, January 26, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
We may be five months away from the start of the 2009 World Series of Poker but it’s never too soon to start making your plan for the biggest event in the game. Harrah’s has released this year’s schedule and there are a number of significant changes that will no doubt spark some discussion.
Well, one thing that wasn’t changed is delaying the final table until November. The Main Event begins on July 3rd and runs until the 15th, at which point the nine remaining players will scatter around the globe before reconvening at the Rio on November 7th. The bracelet will be awarded on November 10th, so it looks like there will be a day off for the final two players before they begin the heads-up battle.
But while the November Nine returns for 2009, rebuy events will not. There had been talk that the rebuy events might disappear because many people felt that it gave deep-pocketed players a chance to “buy” a bracelet. I can’t say that I agree with that philosophy–once the rebuy period ends you still have to figure out a way to get all the chips. Plus the rebuy events usually featured extremely tough fields some kray-zee gambling that was loads of fun to write about. But the rebuy events are gone, replaced by several new tournaments that will be of considerable interest to poker players and fans alike.
And there’s a big one right off the bat–the first open-field event of the 2009 WSOP (on May 28th) will be a $40,000 No-Limit Hold-Em event, and that’s not typo–the buy-in is $40K. That number was picked to celebrate this being the 40th anniversary of the World Series of Poker and no doubt that event will draw a small and elite crowd. For those of us unable to easily scrounge up forty big dimes, especially in these tough economic times, Harrah’s is offering a $1,000 “Stimulus Special” tournament beginning on May 30th. Harrah’s is hoping that this will be the biggest non-Main Event field in history and is expecting a total prize pool of near $5 million.
There are ten $10,000 “World Championship” events this year (including the Main Event) in various forms of poker, as well as the $50K H.O.R.S.E tournament. There are also seven $1,500 tournaments for those of us who want to play in the WSOP but aren’t quite ready to play a $10K event. In all there will be 57 tournaments at the 2009 World Series of Poker–and that doesn’t even include the celebrity-laden Ante Up for Africa tournament that Annie Duke and Don Cheadle will once again host the day before the Main Event starts.
So that’s five months to peruse the schedule, make your travel plans, and build up your bankroll. And believe me, those five months will fly by faster than you can imagine. Plan ahead, and don’t be standing on the rail when the Amazon Room once again becomes the center of the poker Universe.
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