The Glass Half-Full

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.

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Working Late

Friday, June 19, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

So far during the WSOP the really big events–the $10,000 World Championship kinda big–have started at 5pm. That gives the heavy hitters a chance to rest up or, quite often, buy into the the early events and either bust or build a stack before the late tournament starts. Starting at 5pm means you’ll be playing until 3am, in the best-case scenario.

The $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo Eight-or-Better (whew) World Championship started at 5pm, and three of Team UB’s pros are in the field, with each following a different path to the Brasilia Room. Annie Duke skipped the $2,000 No-Limit Hold-Em event that started at noon and made her way to the Rio at her leisure:

Phil Hellmuth did play in the $2K event that started at noon, but he was eliminated early on. But as he recently tweeted he worked out, had something to eat, and drank a Diet Mountain Dew. And returned to the Rio ready to scoop some pots:

Michael Binger also played in the $2K event that started at noon…and as of 9pm, he’s still playing in it. He’s also playing in the $10K Stud/8 event. In fact, just minutes after I took this picture Binger leapt out of his seat and started jogging back to the Amazon Room, as the Hold-Em event was returning from dinner break and he had to get back to his stack. It promises/threatens to be another long day for Michael:

There’s a final table playing down on the ESPN Feature Table, the $5K PLO and aforementioned $2K Hold-Em event playing down in the Amazon Room, and the $10K Stud/8 event with all the superstars going on in the Brasilia Room. And this is pretty much a slow night at the World Series of Poker. This is what they consider slow.

Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop. world series of poker, Annie Duke, Michael Binger, Phil Hellmuth, ub, ultimatebet, world series of poker photos, world series of poker pics, WSOP, wsop photos, wsop pics

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