World Series of Poker 2012

[JasonEvans]

Can't believe we have waited a couple weeks into the Series to begin our annual discussion!

Several interesting things to talk about so far...

1) Duke grad Andy Frankenberger won his second career bracelet yesterday defeating the GPPP (Greatest Poker Player on the Planet) Phil Ivey heads up to win the $10k pot-limit hold'em championship. Andy took home almost a half a mil for his effort and denied Phil his 9th career bracelet.


2) At almost exactly the same time as the Frankenberger-Ivey matchup, Phil Helmuth was winning his 12th career bracelet... in Razz! It is the first time he has won a non Hold'em event. This is a big deal as a lot of folks have been talking about Ivey taking the career bracelet lead away from Helmuth.


3) Meanwhile, everyone is on pins and needles to see who the final few participants will be in the historic $1 mill buy-in event. The field is limited to 48 players and everyone seems to wonder why Phil Ivey hasn't yet entered. Phil Helmuth has been tweeting and talking about getting in, but he is not confirmed yet. Doyle Brunson says he may buy in too. Jean Robert-Ballande; who is known for being reckless, not good; says he is in, but that is not confirmed yet. No one thinks he has the money for it. Here is the current list of confirmed participants. Among the big names-- ElkY, Negreanu, Antonius, Gus Hansen, Tom "Durr" Dwan, and many more. Gonna be EPIC!

-Jason "here is the full WSOP schedule" Evans

[OldPhiKap]

Jean Robert-Ballande; who is known for being reckless, not good; says he is in, but that is not confirmed yet.

A few days ago, Norman "The Slouch" Chad tweeted that J R-B was looking for a million people to put up $1 each.

(Chad finished around 38th in the Razz IIRC and was at The Brat's table -- pretty funny observations as the match went on).

[A-Tex Devil]

Wow. Ever since Full Tilt went under (luckily a week after I had cashed out), I have simply zoned out of the poker world. I want to go back and play an event or two one day, but not being able to play and practice online anymore means my tourney skills are pretty damn rusty.

I've reverted back to the monthly $0.25/$0.50 NLH game with friends that most people were doing pre-Moneymaker, and I enjoy it a lot more.

I am curious how many people (some well known) went broke/declared bankruptcy/lost it all when Full Tilt went under. Many were using their accounts as a de facto bank. A lot of online pros that were doing well simply had recurring withdrawals that was essentially their income. Has it hurt the entry pool into these events?

[Reilly]

A few days ago, Norman "The Slouch" Chad tweeted that J R-B was looking for a million people to put up $1 each....

When Orrin Hatch ran for president, I recall him saying on a talk show he wanted to take the big money influence out of politics so he was looking for 30 million Americans to give him $1 each (or something like that).

Freshman year at Duke, some upperclassmen came walking through the dorm, earnestly seeking donations so he could go on some sort of mission to Africa, as I recall, and his pitch was that if each of Duke's 6,000 or so undergrads at that time would give him $1, he could go off and do a lot of good.

I don't know if J R-B will get his million. Orrin Hatch did not become president. Don't know if the upperclassman ever made it to Africa. Unmoved, I've still got my $3.

[JasonEvans]

Don't look now but Phil Ivey is the chip leader headed into Day 3 of the $5k Omaha H/L tournament. He has made 2 Final Tables in the past week and seems to be HOT right now.

There are 27 players, 3 tables, remaining in the tournament. Ivey's table today will include Mike Matusow, who is 3rd in chips, and Scotty Nguyen, who is 8th in chips. Now that will be a fun table to watch!

Funny little story related to Ivey and the $5K Omaha event. Ivey was also entered in Day One of the $3k Pot-Limit Ohama event (not high/low). He signed up not knowing how well he would do in the $5k tourney. Because he was going so well at the $5k, he did not play a single hand at the $3k PLO. They just slowly blinded him away. Well, he made it through day one merely sacrificing his blinds. He is in 136th place and only has 700 chips left. The current blinds are 300/600, so he's just a few hands from being blinded out. Still, he has managed to outlast 77% of the pool. There were 589 people who entered and Ivey's blinded off stack has outlasted 453 of them. The top 63 get paid, so there is no way his stack makes the money... still, a funny little story.

-Jason "I kinda hope Phil sits down really quick to try to play his 700 chips... go all-in a couple times and see what happens" Evans

[JasonEvans]

If anyone is paying attention, the GPPP is at it again. Phil Ivey is playing his 5th final table in the past 2 weeks today in the $2.5k mixed Hold'em event. He finished 5th just a couple days ago in the $10k HORSE event at which Phil Helmuth (4th) also made the final table. Both Phils are playing amazing poker, making final tables left and right this year.

By the way, here is an interesting article on Ivey and how he has no friends in the poker world -- not because he is a bad guy, but because he just is not a really social kinda guy who does not pay attention to what happens outside his own game. He apparently did not even know that Joe Cada won the World Series Main Event a couple years ago when Ivey played the final table against Joe (Ivey busted out in 7th place and never bothered to stick around or find out who won).

-Jason "still no word if Ivey is going to play in the $1 mil buy-in tournament at the end of this month... but he is so hot right now I think he'd be crazy not to" Evans

[snowdenscold]

So was Ivey eventually just blinded out of the $3K Pot Limit Omaha event?

[A-Tex Devil]

By the way, here is an interesting article on Ivey and how he has no friends in the poker world -- not because he is a bad guy, but because he just is not a really social kinda guy who does not pay attention to what happens outside his own game.

I also think a lot of his former friends are fugitives right now.

[JasonEvans]

The $50k Poker Players Championship is going on right now. 2 days down, 3 more to go. Anyway, if you follow poker at all, you really need to read about a crazy hand that happened yesterday. The best writeup I have seen on it comes from the WSOP site in the "Day 2 Updates" section. It is titled, "Massive Pot and Controversy on Table 360 (part 1 and part 2)."

It comes down to an issue of whether or not players were all in and when they actually went all in. At one point, after the hand was done and the cards had been dealt, an official ruled that the cards would have to be re-run... wow, what chaos that would have been!!?!?!?

Anyway, interesting stuff and I think the eventual ruling (don't re-run the cards and treat it like everyone was all-in because they all intended to be all-in) was the right one.

-Jason "I am dying for One Drop later this month... I just wanna see who has the money/backers to actually make the buy-in" Evans

[JasonEvans]

Another crazy one at the $50k PPlayers Championship. $1.2 mil pot in Omaha with Victor Blom holding a set of 9s and Joe Cassidy holding a set of 10s. Check out the river...

-Jason "fun stuff" Evans

[JasonEvans]

Daniel Negreanu posted proof that he is in the $1 mil One Drop tourney.



Phil Helmuth says he has $600k of his entry all ready and is seeking investors how want a piece of him at $50k a pop. Still no word from Ivey if he is going to try to play. I can't see him passing this up. No one is cool around huge money the way he is.

-Jason "just 3 days until One Drop drops" Evans

[sue71, esq]

One Drop update. Phil is doing quite well so far. All 48 seats sold out.

[OldPhiKap]

One Drop update. Phil is doing quite well so far. All 48 seats sold out.

Is there going to be TV coverage (and if so, when?) -- I would love to avoid knowing what happens and just watch it, although I doubt that's possible.

Heck, I can't avoid finding out who wins each stage of the TDF despite my best intentions.

[sue71, esq]

Is there going to be TV coverage (and if so, when?) -- I would love to avoid knowing what happens and just watch it, although I doubt that's possible.

Heck, I can't avoid finding out who wins each stage of the TDF despite my best intentions.

This is from the end of the article (for some reason it says PHOTOS at the top but there is an article there that follows the pics):

Watch the action on ESPN on Tuesday: ESPN2 from 1 to 4 p.m. PT and then ESPN starting at 5 p.m. PT to the conclusion.

[toughbuff1]

Is there going to be TV coverage (and if so, when?) -- I would love to avoid knowing what happens and just watch it, although I doubt that's possible.

Heck, I can't avoid finding out who wins each stage of the TDF despite my best intentions.

They have a live stream up at wsop.com

[A-Tex Devil]

Read it here. The guy that won the hand played it perfectly after the hand was over as well.

When you listen to the explanation of the guy that folded, he is giving a ton of respect to the raiser there. But his read on the hand was very reasonable in a tourney this big. If this is a $1,000 buy-in and you are playing against an amateur, it's worth the risk that a guy is going all-in without the stone cold nuts. You see cats do this all the time on a hand like this with the ace of spades in their hand, totally missing the boat.

It doesn't say what happened pre-flop, but I could certainly see JJ as a possibility depending on the pre-flop action. You got the guy in seat 2, who I assume was the raiser, betting into you. You know you are best on the flop, and then you are only losing to 88 on the turn. Why not let the guy hang himself? If he's making a continuation bet, and you re-raise, you chase him out.

We'll never know, though.

[A-Tex Devil]

Read it here. The guy that won the hand played it perfectly after the hand was over as well.

When you listen to the explanation of the guy that folded, he is giving a ton of respect to the raiser there. But his read on the hand was very reasonable in a tourney this big. If this is a $1,000 buy-in and you are playing against an amateur, it's worth the risk that a guy is going all-in without the stone cold nuts. You see cats do this all the time on a hand like this with the ace of spades in their hand, totally missing the boat.

It doesn't say what happened pre-flop, but I could certainly see JJ as a possibility depending on the pre-flop action. You got the guy in seat 2, who I assume was the raiser, betting into you. You know you are best on the flop, and then you are only losing to 88 on the turn. Why not let the guy hang himself? If he's making a continuation bet, and you re-raise, you chase him out.

We'll never know, though.

I was mistaken -- they sat in seat 2 and 3, but folder was in cutoff and winner was on button. Also, if winner had JJ, 2 hands beat him at the turn, not 1.

I still think he made an amateur mistake (As, or something like that)

[JasonEvans]

I was mistaken -- they sat in seat 2 and 3, but folder was in cutoff and winner was on button. Also, if winner had JJ, 2 hands beat him at the turn, not 1.

I still think he made an amateur mistake (As, or something like that)

I too think he had made an Ace high flush, probably on the turn, not the river, because he was so quick to call the turn bet. He was probably playing A-Q of spades. His betting, if he was an amateur, follows the pattern of someone playing that hand. Similarly, pocket Js or pocket 7s would be played about the same way. The winner of the hand called the flop bet awful quick if he had actually been on a 9-10 of spades hand. Similarly, he just called the turn, when he presumably got his straight flush. I would expect many players to put in some kind of raise when they turned the stone cold nuts, especially an amateur.

I guess a straight flush was possible, but I think it was unlikely. And I'll tell you something -- if I was the folder I would rather go out losing quads to a straight flush than to fold quads.

-Jason "worth noting that the pot was pretty darn large by the time the folder tossed his quads in -- if he had the winning hand, it put him in a very strong chip position in the biggest tournament of all time" Evans

[JasonEvans]

By the way, anyone else watch the live coverage of the final table last night on ESPN? I watched the last 2 hours. I thought it went pretty darn fast.

Poor Phil Helmuth could not catch a hand. He says he only owned 15% of himself by the time all his investors were taken care of. Still, that means he made $400-grand or so and I bet he didn't put up more than $50k of his own money for the buy-in... if even that. Pretty decent payday.

-Jason "congrats to Antonio... took some luck, but I thought he played great anyway" Evans

[JasonEvans]

This story of Daniel Negreanu and his psychic abilities is beyond belief. How could he know that stuff?!?!?!

It is worth noting that soon after the story, Negreanu busted out in 13th place in the 2-7 single draw lowball tournament. Daniel has had a terrible World Series thus far. He may know everyone's cards some of the time, but he has not been able to translate that into good results so far this year. Just 4 cashes so far and only one of them was a final table (he won $45 grand for 5th place in a Hold'em event early in the Series). He has entered a lot of tournaments too so I imagine he is pretty far in the red at the Series thus far (even with sponsors and investors paying a portion of his buy-ins).

-Jason "Daniel is about as much fun to watch as any player around" Evans