Sunday, June 21, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
While Adam Levy and Brandon Cantu press forward in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold-Em event, three familiar names are battling it out in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship. And just as Adam Levy was before him in the Hold-Em event, Matt Graham is the current chip leader. And I didn’t cooler him when I walked over to take his picture, giving up both reason to smile:
Michael Binger also returned on Day 2 and finds himself very much in contention with around 110,000. Come to think of it, Michael’s pretty much always very much in contention:
And Matt Vengrin is among the final 66 players and has rebuilt his stack up to 70,000 thanks to a timely double-up through Erick Lindgren:
Sixty-six players remain, twenty-seven get paid. The money bubble is a long way off and the railbirds will no doubt be crowding close as this star-studded field is winnowed down to the final table–or, maybe we’ll get down to the final nine before play is automatically suspended at 3AM. The PLO events have tended to play the fastest, a few of them have reached the final nine before that 3AM deadline. But this is a $10K event, a World Championship, with many of the best players in the world, so that may lead to a slower rate of attrition. Perhaps. We shall see.
Tags: 000 pot-limit omaha world championship, 10, 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Matt Graham, matt vengrin, Michael Binger, PLO, pot-limit omaha, ub, ultimatebet, ultimatebet wsop, 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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Monday, June 8, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
I did something today I’ve never done before. I showed up to a poker tournament after Phil Hellmuth.
After ten days of arriving at the Amazon Room just after eleven I decided to catch up on some sleep, have a proper lunch, and get to the Rio in the afternoon. That way I could (hopefully) hang around into the wee hours if (hopefully) one or more UB players made it deep into Day 2 of the $10,000 Omaha/8 World Championship. Unfortunately I arrived after Michael Binger and Brandon Cantu were eliminated, but both Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth are still in the hunt. There are 82 players remaning (a bit less than half the original starting field) and we’ll play until we reach the final nine or when we hit 3am, whichever comes first (more likely the latter).
Annie cashed in the $1,500 Omaha/8 event held last week and though she was down to just a few thousand chips earlier in the day she battled back and now sits with 54,000. That’s the good news. The bad is that sitting directly to Annie’s left is Phil Ivey, making Annie’s seat one of the least-desirable in the poker universe. In fact, that’s Ivey’s fingers riffling chips in the corner of this photo:
Phil Hellmuth seems to be in a jaunty mood today, and why not? He has well over 100,000 in chips, his 71st WSOP cash is in his sights, and beyond that are other records ripe for the smashing. Perhaps the only thing missing from the equation is a venti mocha latte…
There are now 80 players left, with the top 18 cashing. A long way to go.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, Annie Duke, omaha/8, Phil Hellmuth, phil ivey, Poker Poker Poker, ub, ultimatebet, ultimatebet wsop, 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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Monday, June 1, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
A nightly rite here at the World Series of Poker is the bagging of the chips. After a long day battling on the green felt, seeing the floor staff bringing armfulls of heavy plastic sleeves to the tables is a welcome sight. Those bags mean that the day has come to an end…and you still have chips. When a tournament plays down to a final table those bags are usually full to bursting with brightly-colored checks, you’ll see the floorpersons using two hands to hoist them onto sturdy metal trolleys. It must be extremely satisfying to bag your chips and then have to lift the groaning sack with your legs so you don’t throw your back out. I wouldn’t know.
Dealing with an overstuffed chip bag is a problem Phil Hellmuth has dealt with more than any player in WSOP history. He has the most cashes, the most final tables, the most bracelets. The final table of today’s Champions Invitational won’t count toward Phil’s total, and chances are the chip bag Phil brought to the table was his lightest ever:
That’s three chips, a 1,000, a 100, and a 25. I’ll leave you to do the math. So Phil wasn’t exactly in a good spot as the ten remaining World Champions made their way to the ESPN Feature Table stage, especially as he’d be in the big blind on the first hand. The players started unbagging their chips…and Phil wasn’t there yet. While the camera crews got zeroed in I snuck up to the podium where the Binion Cup, the trophy that will be awarded to the Invitational winner, was displayed:
Just then Phil tore around the corner and squeezed past the ropes and entered the feature table area. Turns out his tardiness wasn’t his fault–ESPN was interviewing him and they ran long. So the producers grabbed him (almost literally) and got him miked up for the final table:
The remaining players were introduced according to the year the won the Main Event, with Peter Eastgate going first, Robert Varkonyi next, and before too long it was time for the 1989 World Champion to make his entrance:
World Series of Poker Commissioner said to the crowd that this was the greatest final table assembled in WSOP history, and with every player a world champion and scores of bracelets among them it’s hard to argue against it (perhaps the only table that could compare would be the 2006 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. final, won by the late Chip Reese). The ten men gathered at today’s final table were a tableau of poker’s past, present, and future:
And then came the somewhat anticlimactic act of…playing poker. Phil tore open his bag, dumped his trio of chips on the felt, and said “One…two…three…deal me in!” With Phil having to pony the big blind on the first hand he was pretty much committed before the cards were even dealt. Chip leader Carlos Mortensen raised and Phil looked across the felt at “The Matador”, knowing that he would have to best the 2001 World Champion to stay alive.
It turned out Phi was in better shape than he might’ve hoped–Mortensen held two red deuces to Phil’s 10s-5s. Two overcards vs. a pocket pair, the ‘ol coin flip situation. The 4h-Qd-Jc flop didn’t help much at all, but the Ad on the turn gave Phil a draw to Broadway. But the river brought the 8d and, just like that, Phil Hellmuth’s afternoon came to an end.
Just before the cards went into the air Phil went around the table and shook everyone’s hand, as he always does at a new table. Now he stood and again shook everyone’s hand, this time to say goodbye. He got to Doyle Brunson and said, ‘I’ve never done that before–I shook everyone’s hand, played one hand, and then shook everyone’s hand again.” And there was no tirade, no rant–just lots of handshakes and smiles all around:
Sadly this means that Phil won’t be driving off in the 1970 Corvette Stingray that goes to the Champions Invitational’s winner, and that means I won’t have an excuse to camp out next to it shooting pics. Not that I should need an excuse to take pictures of such a beautiful machine. I’ll post more pics of the ‘Vette (and of the Invitational’s final table) later in the evening.
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Friday, May 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Well, almost. I was sifting through photos I shot earlier in the day when Annie Duke tweeted that Phil Hellmuth had just been moved to her $1,500 Omaha/8 table. “Yum yum” was what Annie had to say about that, and I couldn’t disagree. Two UB pros sitting at the same table? Seemed like a slam-dunk pic and post to me. So I grabbed the camera, squeezed past the railbirds leaning against the ropes and fired off a few shots. Of which this is one:
The tournament staff might’ve done Phil and Annie a favor by sitting them together, as the two were chatting back and forth when they were sitting several tables apart. Phil’s new book being one of the subjects, and he duly brought over a copy for Annie to peruse between hands:
There are other UB pros in the field today. Michael Binger picked himself up after getting knocked out of the $40,000 Anniversary Hold-Em event yesterday and picked up some early pots in today’s Omaha/8 tournament:
And Hollywood Dave Stann is also playing in the Omaha/8 event, going with an unusual choice in eyewear. “Who’s the only other player who would wear goggles at the poker table?” he asked. “Michael Phelps?” Let’s see if the gogs start a trend.
And the newest member of the the UltimateBet team, Brandon Cantu, picked up where he left off last year–driving Phil Hellmuth crazy. You may remember a testy Cantu-Hellmuth confrontation during last year’s Main Event coverage and Brandon just tweeted that he’d just shown nut-nut to Phil (yes, in the time I wrote my post Phil was moved from Annie’s table, great for the ‘ol continuity) and that Phil started the talking of the trash. I raced over there to see another hand where Brandon chopped the low and Phil got left out in the cold. These intramural squabbles are gonna tear us apart…
About an hour ’till the dinner break in the $1,500 Omaha/8 event, and the $40,000 Hold-Em event is down to 52 (they’ll either play 8 levels or stop if they get down to 18 players). I’ll tell you one big story so far at the World Series–the cash game action in the Amazon Room is HUGE this year. The entire front-right quadrant of the room (as you enter the main entrance) is 100% cash games, maybe 45 tables in total. I saw lots and lots of red- and green-chip NL games going on, far more than there were last year. Something to keep an eye on, something to avoid in the name of bankroll maintenance.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Annie Duke, Hollywood Dave, hollywood dave stann, Michael Binger, Phil Hellmuth, ultimatebet world series of poker, ultimatebet wsop, 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, 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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