WSOP Day 4 - "Shrinkage Continued"

Day 4 of the 40th annual WSOP can really be surmised in just 1 paragraph. Event #2 played to the Final Table and Quit. Event #3 played till 19 players were left and quit. And Event #4 was day 1a, played till 376 players remained, and quit. See a trend?

There were no bracelets handed out for the second straight day, as the effort was to shrink down the size of some of the incredibly large fields. It was however an incredible day of poker that included the usual WSOP hoopla, including this year’s Lemonade Selling Contest for Refugees International. The contest pitted a lemonade stand hosted by Annie Duke of Poker fame and Celebrity Apprentice runner up (she got hosed) vs. Norman Chad, the comical co-host along with Norman Chad of the ESPN broadcasts of the WSOP. It was lots of fun, and eventually saw Annie win the contest, and promptly donate all of the proceeds to charity.

But as for the poker itself, Event #2 has finally made it to the final table. The remaining 9 players all have unique stories. There is a WSOP World Champion still amazingly in the field, and a Pablosplace hopeful. Greg Raymer, the winner of the 2004 NLHE Main Event, has suffered some of the most unfortunate luck that I can remember, and is still in great position with 3.3 million chips, which is good for 4th place.

In a series of 4 hands over 2 levels of play, Raymer saw beats that I’ve ranted about from online play, but really, when there are 14 people left in a $40k buy in event, and you’re playing for $1.8 million, or even at the Final table of that event, these are just sick. The first hand, Raymer was dealt AA, and called a shove from a short stack, who flipped over As-Qs. With 2 spades on the flop, the river spade gave his opponent a flush for the win. Not terrible, as you can’t fault the guy for shoving with a premium hand.

In the second one though, it was much sicker. Raymer made a pre-flop raise, and another Short stacked player shoved with K9o. Raymer again called with AA and the flop produced a K, and the River a 9 to give his opponent two pair. But Raymer went back to work and accumulated more chips like the champion he is.

Then, when the action went to 10 handed, Raymer was dealt QQ. An Ace hit the flop on and the board was all hearts. Raymer bet it, and his opponent called. The players checked the turn and river and Raymer commented “Ace is good.” His opponent – AJ.

Finally, Raymer again has AA and shoves, only to be called by Ted Forrest who also shows AA. The pot is chopped on this one, but Raymer took it like the a champion. He just kept winning pots with other cards and now sits in a great position at the Final Table.

My other hopeful, and the guy that I really hope wins it all is Noah Schwartz. He is currently sitting short stacked with only 660,000 in chips, which is 8th of 9 players. He had been up around 3 million, but got very unlucky as he moved over the top of a player that was stealing with 7-6 (he had shoved all in) and then was called by another player with T-T. Noah flipped QQ and was in great shape pre-flop, but the flop produced a T, and the turn another T to give Torelli Quad T’s to scoop a giant pot. Schwartz is still alive, but will need a couple of double ups to make a run at the title. But I commend him for his amazing play and this Final Table appearance. Great job Noah.

In Event #3, the bubble burst at 90 players, and we ended the day with 19 players remaining. My eye has been on 2 players in the remaining field. 1 is the defending champion of this event, Thang Luu, who is currently sitting 2nd in chips with 410k. Repeats in the WSOP are just flat out impossible in this day and age. The field sizes continue to grow, and players are getting better and better as more and more players learn how to play the game. I think it will be very interesting to see if Thang can hang in there to win a second championship in this even in a row.
The other player that I’ve had my eye on is Freddy Deeb. I’ve only caught a little bit of poker on TV lately, but the couple that I have, were WPT events that saw Deeb at the Final Table. Deeb is really an undervalued player in my opinion. He is truly a fantastic poker player, that plays all of the games well, evidenced by the fact that 1 of his 2 WSOP bracelets came in the H.O.R.S.E. event. But he’s had 25 total cashes a the WSOP, 14 of which were Final table’s, resulting in 2 Championships (the 2007 H.O.R.S.E Championship, and the 1996 $5,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball). He also bubbled in 10th of the $3,000 Limit Hold’em event, or it would’ve been 15 Final Tables. Deeb is an incredibly accomplished poker pro, and I wish him luck in this event.

In Event #4, the field size had to be capped. There were 2 days of poker that are considered to be Day 1a and Day 1b. Because of the size of the field, these days needed to be broken down this way to accommodate all the players, but because of the calendar of events, the field size is capped at 3,000 players per day. Well, day 2 sold out already, and we have a field size that has 6,000 players bought in. Day 1a finished with very few big names still in it. Jason Mercier and Corwin Cole are probably the two largest names that remain in this field, as nearly 90% of the field was eliminated that played in Day 1a. 376 players will wait a day to resume, as Day 1b gets under way with the other 3,000 players today.

Also today, we have the Final Table of Event #2 this afternoon, The final 19 players of Event #3 will be in play, and a special event in which the 25 surviving WSOP Main Event Champions will be competing in a Freeroll event. Greg Raymer will likely have to miss this event as he’ll be playing in the $40k, but the field will host an incredible set of names. It should make for a great television broadcast as well.

That’s all for Day 4. I’ll have more from Day 5, including the likely awarding of the next 2 bracelets of the WSOP 2009 tomorrow morning. Cheers

Pablosplace History is Made

Last night saw another one of the ladies of Team7Deuce take down the home game, although this time it was a first. Amber has played with us for nearly a year, and while she's cashed several times, Heads up poker has just never been her friend. Last night things completely turned for her on her very first heads up hand as she and Gary moved all their chips into the middle on a flop of Q-J-6. Amber had shoved, and Gary made the call. Gary flipped over A-10 for Ace high and a gut-shot straight draw, but Amber tossed over Q-3 for the made top pair. The turn card helped out Amber even more as the 3c fell, meaning that Gary was drawing dead to the 4 remaining K's in the deck. But the river card of 9h meant that Amber would claim her first title at the Pablosplace Home Game. I couldn't be more proud. Congrats!

It was a great game last night as 9 players saw action to the felt in total. That means that we paid 3 players, and Traci returned to cash in 3rd, moving with Pocket Q's, but was called by Gary who tossed over A-6 suited to win the pot when he flopped an Ace.

It was great fun. I'm looking forward to getting my chance again next week as it's the last home game before the bachelor party game, a nice live game tune up. We should have a decent crowd here too as I've already spoken with several players that will be returning from last night, and another few that say that they are DEFINITELY in for next week.

Until then, Cheers - P

WSOP Day 3 - A day of Shrinkage

Day 3 of the WSOP produced no bracelets. It was a day to trim the fields of Event #2, the open $40k buy in even and the Monster Event #3, $1500 Omaha Hi/Low-Eight or Better. Both tournaments are monsters in their own right for completely different reasons.

In Event #2 – play began with 89 of the original 201 players competing for a huge cash prize. This was the second day of this event, and action got going quickly with many big name pro’s hitting the rail. The likes of which that made their final exit included Doyle Brunson, Mike “the mouth” Matusow, Phil Ivey, Chris Moneymaker, Huck Seed, Michael DeMichele, Hoyt Corkins, and Antonio Esfandiari among others. In the end, 23 players are remaining. The last 4 finishers all were in the money and took home a prize of $71,858 for their two day efforts. Those cashers were, Vanessa Rousso (27th), JC Tran (26th), Sorel Mizzi (25th), and David “The Dragon” Pham (24th).

The 23 remaining players will get under way today at the Rio as we work closer to the final table. Of the remaining players, the top chip holders are

1- Justin Bonomo (2.6 mil)
2- Ted Forest (2.5 mil)
3- David Baker (2.3 mil)
4- Greg Raymer (2.1 mil)
5- Lex Veldhuis (2.1 mil)

After that, the next place chip count is at 1.2 mil. I’m still pulling for Noah Schwartz (541k) to win this one, but he’s going to have to play some amazing poker today to get into the money.

I find it interesting that Ted Forest was able to do so well given the fact that he didn’t return from the Dinner Break…well, on time at least. 52 players went to dinner, and 51 came back. About 2 hours later, Ted Forest returned to his seat where he’s missed several rounds of blinds and antes. He claimed that he’d gone back to his hotel room and fell asleep. Well the nice mid tournament nap apparently refreshed him, and he’s now 2nd in chips!

In Event #3, we saw that largest field EVER in the history of the WSOP for a Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo-Eight or Better event. 918 total players bought in for the $1500 entry, which is almost 100 more than entered for this event last year. This is a great sign as to the continued growth of Poker. The event included several marquis names including the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Daniel Negreanu, and Chris Ferguson. Probably the most interesting story of Event #3 is that last years champion in this event, Thang Lu, is not only alive in the tourney, but thriving as the chip leader. It’ll be interesting to see if he can hang onto the lead and repeat as the champion in this event.

A total of 197 players will make their way to the Rio again today to resume play. Chip counts weren’t made available as I wrote this, so I don’t have any updates there. But I’ll let you know about more notables at some point.

Today will have three events in play, as we play down to a Final Table in Event #2, Reduce the field size of Event #3, and begin play in Event #4. I thing Event #4 (which is the $1,000 NLHE event) may actually pose the largest field size of any of the tournaments outside the Main Event. It’ll be interesting to see how many players turn out for their shot at a bracelet.

I’ll have more for you tomorrow. Cheers, Paul

WSOP Day 2 - The first Bracelet

Day 2 brought the very first bracelet of the 40th Annual WSOP. And the first champion of 2009 was none other than a bartender from N9NE Steakhouse in Las Vegas, NV - Andrew Cohen. This was Andrew’s second WSOP cash, as he'd finished 15th in Event #3 WSOP Circuit event for a little more than $15k in the 2006/2007 series. But this time, he made away with the jewelry and the top prize in Event 1 $500 buy in NLHE, which was $83,778.

Andrew really stepped up his game at the final table and began knocking out most of the competitors at the final table to take a huge chip lead that he wouldn’t relinquish. When play slowed down (and it got terrible slow when we hit 5 players remaining), Andrew was the first to really start to mix things up, and he came out on the better side of each of the showdowns to eventually claim the prize.

Most of the participants in the field were relative unknowns, but Andrew now holds the esteemed honor (even if it is for a day) of being the ONLY 2009 Bracelet winner. Congratulations Andrew.

In the other event, the media circus began when Event 2 got under way. Event 2 is the “Who’s Who” of the poker world, and is the $40,000 buy in NLHE event. The field size had been talked about in many poker circles, and in the end, there were 201 players who paid the $40k to enter the tournament, which means a prize pool of a whopping $7.7 million, of which first place would take home just short of $1.9 million. Not too shabby. The tournament will begin paying the final 3 tables (or 27 players if you’re wondering), and with over 200 big name pro’s, there were a TON of notable exits yesterday. The current chip leaders after day 1 are:

Bruno Fituossi – 812,500
Chris Moneymaker – 805,500
Justin Bonomo – 738,000
Alexander Veldhuis – 646,500
Kyle Wilson – 611,500
Brian Townsend – 609,000
Michael DeMichele – 519,500
Emil Patel – 494,500
Alan Sass – 491,000
Andrew Black – 449,500

Personally, I’m pulling for Mark Seif (411,500) or Noah Schwartz (168,000), as those are two people that I’ve had dealings with. They are tremendous human beings, and seeing them take down an event like this would be 100% deserving. I’ll provide more info on twitter (@Pablosplace) as the day unfolds. Action will resume again in the Amazon Room at 2PM as the 89 remaining players toss their chips around in an effort to win the 2nd bracelet and likely one of the largest cash prizes of the 2009 WSOP

I think that one of the great surprises of this event so far has to be the great play of Former WSOP Main Event Champion Chris Moneymaker. Chris just hasn’t received much respect from the top name pro’s since winning the Main Event a few years ago. He’s a skilled player, who definitely got lucky to win that event, but was good enough to get himself there. I like Chris for the same reason that many other players like him; he is largely responsible for the poker boom. It was Chris that took a $40 online satellite buy in all the way to a WSOP Main Event Championship and millions of dollars. Overnight, it gave every amateur poker player the dream of being able to run lucky enough to do exactly the same thing. People everywhere chase the dream of what Chris was able to accomplish. I know that I am not alone when I think “maybe one day, that could be me.” Chris is a wonderful ambassador for the game of poker and gives all of us amateurs hope. I wish him continued success at this event as well.

In addition to the action of Event 2, Event 3 will also get underway today. Event 3 is the $1,500 buy in Omaha Hi-Low Split (8 or better) event, and should attract a decent crowd. I’ll bet that most of the high profile pro’s that busted in Day 1 of Event 2 will likely be playing in this event.

That’s it for the Day 2 recap. I’ll have more information about Day 3 tomorrow morning. Cheers, P

WSOP - Day 1 Complete

The elimination of the bubble player signifies not just that all the remaining players are in the money, but this bubble also tells us that it's the end of Day 1 of Event #1, the Casino Employees $500 NLHE buy in. The end of the Day 1 comes after some 13 hours of play in which 866 participants began throwing chips around in an effort to seize the first bracelet of the 2009 World Series of Poker. Play was very fast and furious from the get-go, with more than half of the field sent packing in the first 4 hours. While the field contained mostly relative unknown players, there were a few notable names that brought their $500 and a dream of being the first winner of the WSOP. Pat Poels came and went quickly, busting within the first hour and a half of play. Legendary Tournament Director Jack McClelland would do slightly better, but he also would leave the felt just after the dinner break. Kyle Morris and Marsha Waggoner were also in play, but neither of them advanced to day two.

As far as players that are left, a late charge helped Cesar Chavez chip up to the chip lead after Day 1, after amassing a 107,700 stack. Other than Chavez, it looked as though there was only one other player above the 100k mark. Casey Kuhn, a dealer at the Riverside Casino and Golf Resort in Iowa who made the trip out west to do some playing of his own was at 101,300 just before play ended. These two men have really distanced themselves from the rest of the field. But there are still 79 other players hungry to catch them, of which about two dozen players of which will start Day 2 in the 80,000-chip range.

That’s all the news from Day 1. Today begins Day 2 and the start of the eagerly awaited $40k buy in NLHE event. This field will be star packed with many big named pro’s as it promises to be one of the richest pots of the tournament. There are several guesses as to the number of participants that will vie for the huge crown, but most seem to think it will be between 200 and 300.

That’s all from Day 1 in the Las Vegas desert.

The World Series of Poker - 2009

So the 40th Annual World Series of Poker kicks off in style tomorrow in Las Vegas, with an unbelievable 57 bracelets to be handed out throughout the multiple events. Event 1 is the $500 buy in Casino Employees event, which plays No-Limit Hold’em.

The next couple of months is a poker player’s dream as this is the pinnacle of the poker calendar. Who amongst you will become the next Jeff Madsen, who turned his 21st birthday into multiple Bracelets? Who has it in them to become this year’s Erick Lindgren, last year’s Player of the year? Can someone else become the next Chris Moneymaker, and turn a $40 buy in into the greatest prize that poker has to offer? Will Phil Hellmuth end the series still having the most bracelets of all time? Will Jamie Gold still be the WSOP’s all time money leader?

So many questions will be played out over the next few months, and you can count on Pablosplace to deliver you with the updated results of all 57 events. I am after all addicted to this. I still carry with me the dream that one day, I’ll be able to join the crowd of fellow players at the event, but for now, it remains a dream.

I have some people that I’ve been chatting with recently that I’ll be pulling for, as well as some pro’s that I think would make some really interesting stories. In the end, I’ll make it as entertaining to read on my site as I possibly can, and I hope that you all enjoy my feedback.

A note, I will be missing some events between June 20th through June 28th, as I have this little thing going on in life (getting married and going on a honeymoon). But other than that, I’ll be blogging pretty religiously, and tweeting as well (you can follow me on twitter as @Pablosplace). Good luck to all of my friends that will be participating!

Throwing a changeup

I'm thinking of re-designing Pablosplace, but I have no real clue how to do it. I'm not a tech guy at all, and I have no real knowledge in Web Design. I don't know if it will be financially worthwhile, but I'm interested in changing a few things on Pablosplace. If you know about "How To" do this kind of thing, contact me. I'd be interested to hear costs associated with a web re-design, and how labor intensive and expensive it might be to do the things that I want to do. Thanks, Paul

oh, e-mail is probably the best way (fleapid@yahoo.com)