The Muck
Card Guards
Bernard Lee
George Lind III
Maverick Movie
Off the Felt
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JUN 22
Five First With 2012 World Series of Poker Bracelet Winner Craig McCorkell
On the that night will be remembered for one of the most active rails in the history of the World Series Of Poker, we got London boy Craig McCorkell's First Five right after he won a bracelet in Event #36: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout.
What was your first thought when you won the bracelet?Oh, man. Just incredible happiness. I wished that my girlfriend was here. She’s flying in tomorrow. I’m excited about that.
Who was the first person you called?
I called my girlfriend already, right after I won. She’s been incredibly supportive. It’s a alternative lifestyle that a poker player lives you know?
What’s the first thing you’re going to do to celebrate?
I don’t know, we might wait to celebrate tomorrow. I know a few of the lads have had a couple of beers [laughing] so they might be up for heading out. But I really don’t know what we’ll do.
What was the first turning point in the tournament?
There were no real turning points. I played tight and solid at the start of the day. Because I play cash a lot online, I thought I had the biggest edge three to four-handed, so I waited until then to open up my game. I think I play best heads-up, so I waited until then to make my moves.
What’s the first thing you’re going to buy?
Actually I do know. We’re going to get a dog. It’s going to have to be pure breed now. My favorite dogs? I like King Charles Cavaliers. I like shih tzus too. We’ll have to see.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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JUN 22
@AsianSpa Blogs: Dealing with Tragedy and Loss
Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of PokerNews.
This is the toughest blog I have ever written. While I was playing a $2/$5 no-limit hold'em game Saturday mid-morning at the WSOP and planning on playing the noon event, I received the worst news anyone can. I got a call from my dad saying my brother was on his way home from the office and was involved in a car accident. I asked how he was. My dad gave me the news that will rock you to the core — he said he didn’t make it. I told them I would catch the next flight out and hung up. It all became a complete blur.
I remember just throwing the chips in my backpack and wandered to the hall thinking how this could be happening. I called a close friend and asked if she could find me a flight ASAP to Chicago because it was an emergency. She told me to catch U.S. Airways 2:42 p.m. departure which was a direct flight and emailed me the boarding pass to my phone. It was already 1:20 p.m., so I grabbed a cab and left with only my backpack for the trip. The cabbie dropped me off at passenger pick up which was so much faster and I was able to make the flight. I was in Chicago at 8:20.
My brother was the president and leader of our families trading business and was the one who kept everything going. He was a great son, a great brother, a great boss, and a great husband to my sister-in-law. I am not sure what I am going to do at this point, but I am staying in Chicago for the time being.
As you all are aware, I am pretty harsh and sometimes crude with my Twitter persona, but it does feel great receiving the amount of DMs I received. I have some of the best people on Twitter on our #TeamSpa™ Team. Thank you to everyone who reached out, it meant a lot.
I am not giving up Twitter or poker but I have to step up and try to fill in the best I can here and help fill the void and keep everything going. We have 15 employees and they along with their families count on us. I thought I was done with a “real” job when I sold the spa a few years ago, but life can change in the blink of an eye.
Live your life and remember to always say goodbye, you might not get the chance again! I was lucky enough to have spoken to my brother only they day before and he said, “be good TruthSpeaker,” and chuckled as he hung up the phone. I smiled and didn’t even think about it at the time, but that’s the last thing my brother will ever say to me.
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JUN 21
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 25 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor: Day 25
Here’s what the odds are on today’s final table today of Event 36: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout, according to the Rio sports book:
Craig Mccorkell @ 4/1
Jeremiah Fitzpatrick @ 4/1
Antonio Esfandiari @ 4/1
Roberto Romanello @ 4/1
Joe Tehan @ 4/1
Athanasios Polychronopoulos @ 4/1
Sardor Gaziev @ 4/1
Alessandro Longobardi @ 4/1
Jonathan Lane @ 4/1
Thiago Nishijima @ 4/1Due to this tournament being a shootout all players have similar chip counts, thus the odds are the same for all players.
David Tuchman's Thoughts On Shootout Final Table
Event 36: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout is under way. Antonio Esfandiari and Joe Tehan are two of the bigger names featured at this final table. David Tuchman will be in the commentator booth calling the action. We caught up with Tuchman to get his thoughts.
“All eyes are on Antonio (Esfandiari),” Tuchman said. This final table will have a “different dynamic” with all the players having “virtually having the same amount of chips.”
Tuchman says “the pay jumps from 9th to 1st” will make for an interesting final table. “I like the shootout structure. There’s not the same ICM considerations as there would be at a freezeout final table, but you still take it into consideration.”
Amit “amak316” Makhija will be joining Tuchman in the commentator booth as well. We’ll do our best to catch up with amak316 to get his thoughts on the action.
Like A Boss
Eric Baldwin has made a prediction for the winner of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event. Check out his tweet:
We spotted this player yesterday, but now others are noticing him as well. It's hard not to when u bring, what appears to be, a diamond encrusted chalis to the felt.
Sick Rail Bro
Thiago NishijimaBrazilian poker pro Thiago Nishijima is currently at the $3,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout final table and he has fellow countryman Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari in his rail.
Andre Akkari seated at Nishijima's railWe asked Akkari if he gave Nishijima any tips before the start of the match.
“I haven’t talked to him, he got here late (laughs), Akkari said. “He’s really good. He’s already won a WCOOP bracelet. He has more than $2million in winnings.”
Rafael Nadal Joins Team PokerStars
If you haven’t heard, superstar tennis player Rafael Nadal has joined Team PokerStars. We'll be getting reactions from the pros on PokerStars' latest addition.
We’ve reported that Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari has been playing a lot of tennis lately. We spoke to him to get his reaction.
“I never talked to him, but he’s an idol,” Akkari said. “ He’s amazing.”
Here's some tweets from other Team PokerStars Pros:
Welcome to pokerstars @RafaelNadal ! Pretty exciting stuff. I look forward to meeting u on the felt!
June 21 2012FollowWelcome to @PokerStars #NadalPoker i am 100% to play both w you, poker and tenis, as doubles of course! Kkkkk
June 21 2012FollowAmak316's Analysis Of Shootout Final Table
As reported earlier Amit “amak316” Makhija is doing commentary for the final table of Event 36: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout. We spoke to amak316 at the break to get his thoughts on the play thus far.
“Interesting so far. It’s only been two hours. Players are feeling each other out. John (Jonathan Lane) has the big chip lead and the others are grouped together. John is not using his chip lead like he should. He’s not as aggressive as he could be. It’s surprising with John and Jeremiah (Fitzpatrick) having the most chips since they’re the most inexperienced players (at the final table). John’s gotta be the favorite at this point. Antonio (Esfandiari) is playing well too."
World Cup Poker
There’s an international flavor to today’s final table of the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament. Craig McCorkell, from the UK, has one of the loudest rails, which includes Chris Moorman. They’ve been chanting and cheering with every pot that McCorkell scoops. Not to be outdone, Brazilian Thiago Nishijima’s rail is just as loud. The atmosphere would make one think it’s a World Cup soccer match.
Thiago Nishijima
Moorman pictured in center
McCorkell's rail
Tweet pic from Team PokerStars Pro Andre AkkariSights In The Amazons
Moseying through the Amazon we ran into some interesting sights in Event 38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em.
You have something on your chin sir.
I'll be your Huckleberry.
We're building castles.
God Save The Queen
The party continues for the British rail in Event 36: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout. We were there just as Craig McCorkell doubled up when his
held versus Alessandro Longobardi’s 
. Here are some reaction shots to go along with evidence of the alcohol infused celebration.
We’re being treated to England’s finest football chants in the stands of the Final Table. Some lyrics include:
“Go on Corky, go on corky”
“We’re all going to Stoney’s, we’re all going to Stoney’s, La Da Da Da – Hey!”
“Craig McCorkell is our friend, is our friend, is our friend, Craig McCorkell is our friend, Da Da Dada”
There’s a lot of heckling of Antonio Esfandiari going on too. At one point, in the middle of an “Antonio, woah” chant, Antonio stood up and yelled back “Is that all you’ve got?”, to which one spectator called “For my next trick, I’ll pull a rabbit from my a*se!”
This spurred on a volley of abuse directed Antonio’s way:
“Are you a dealer in disguise, are you a dealer, you a dealer, are you a dealer in disguise?”
“He’s got a visor on his head, on his head, on his head”
“We’re playing tennis in the morning, we’re playing tennis in the morning…”
You get the idea…Trouble At Final Table
Security have taken a hard line with the English railbirds at the final table of Event 36: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout. The security came up to the stands and started to remove some of the spectators, and proceeded to escort them from the Amazon room and check their passports. The noise has been reaching a crescendo just before security got involved. Here are some photo’s of Security intervening and arguing with the fans.
We caught up with some of the fans, who seemed very sober and coherent, just after their friends had been told to leave. Here’s what they had to say.
“They didn’t tell us what we had done wrong. We’re just cheering and stamping, we were told this afternoon that it was encouraged.”
“One of our mates is pretty drunk, but it’s not against the rules, he was just singing and dancing”
“I think it’s ridiculous. They’re not letting anyone bring beer up here now [Author can confirm this is true]. We’re just trying to improve the atmosphere but they aren’t used to it at all, and they’re scared what could happen”
“We can’t even see the hole cards, what are we meant to do just sit here in silence? It would be pretty boring to sit here for eight hours. I’m surprised they’re like this, we didn’t break any rules”
Who Wore It Better?
Antonio Esfandiari's visor is getting a lot of attention this evening. We saw this other Visor on the far side of the amazon room and wanted to know which you thought was sweeter.
Sweet License Plates
It’s been a while since we’ve featured a cool poker license plate in the muck, and there is a reason for that: It’s just too hot to go outside! However, with things a little slow during Dinner break of the 10k PLO, we carefully picked out our thinnest, whitest t-shirts and walked the outline of the car park in search of some gems: Today, we got lucky. Check out these poker related cars.
The First Amendment
The WSOP railbird rules have been changed this afternoon. Where as previously there were no specific rules about drinking alcohol out of shoes, the rest of this year is going to be different. When the announcer after the dinner break of the EVENT final table, we outlined some new rules as such:
“No throwing anything, no kicking anything, no destroying anything, no pouring beer into your shoe or your neighbor’s shoe”.
This rule has the potential to change the face of live poker as we know it.
The Optimal Angle
The other day we saw a man leaning in his chair at such an extreme angle that we had to post it here and question the man's sanity. Today we think we've found a man who found the right balance between relaxing in your chair, but not taking your life in your hands.
Props to Carlos Mortensen, shown here in the 6-max Limit Hold'em.
The Card Protector Chronicles
Check out today's wtf card protectors. The first is like the small monopoly dog figurine, and the second... looks like some sort of triple knut/oddly shaped knuckle duster. Well, whatever works...
Lets go F*cking Mental!!
The crowd went wild here in the Amazon room after Craig McCorkell doubled up in a big all in pot here at the final table of Event 36: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout before taking down the tournament two minutes later. We'll try to catch Craig for a First Five in a few minutes, for now enjoy this picture of the scenes here.
Mortensen's Frustration
Carlos Mortensen is never content with just stacking his chips by color or in even stacks and always wants to create something aesthetically pleasing. He probably finds the activity soothing, helping him stave off the dreaded monkey-tilt that so many players suffer from during the 7 week long World Series Of Poker.
However, despite his best efforts, in Event #40: $2,500 Limit Hold'em tonight he simply doesn't have enough chips to construct too interesting a stack. It looks as if that (and the fact that he's playing Limit Hold'em) has the tilt brewing...
Cash Game Watch
We swung by the Pavilion room at 1am tonight to check out the cash game action and see saw Brian 'Stinger' Hastings sitting playing PLO. Stinger played Event #39: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha already today, but obviously hadn't had his fill of PLO for the day. We'll keep you posted on who else sits in the game, and how late it goes tonight.
We encourage everyone to get involved with "The Muck." See something you think is Muck worthy? Send it to the muck@pokernews.com. We accept all media including photos and videos.
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JUN 21
Five First With 2012 World Series of Poker Bracelet Winner Naoya Kihara
Wednesday night was a night of many firsts. Naoya Kihara was able to best a field of 419 players in Event #34: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha to take home his first bracelet. Kihara admitted that Wednesday was his first time playing pot-limit Omaha heads-up. His win marked the very first bracelet won by a Japanese native. We got a chance to catch up with Kihara moments after his win to get a get a few of his first thoughts.
When was the first moment that you realized you could win this tournament?
Actually, when Day 1 finished, I finished 12th in chips. Then there were only 72 players remaining, and I got 12th. At that time, I started to think a little bit about that.
Who is the first person you're going to call and tell?
I have not decided yet, but I need to make a call to my parents.
What's the first thing that you're going to buy?
Hmm. A watch I think. [Laughs]
Who was the first person that you hugged or high-fived after you won?
My girlfriend.
What is the first thing that you thought after you won?
'I want to sleep,' actually. I'm tired actually. I couldn't sleep a lot the last two days. I was too excited and I couldn't sleep at all, so I need to rest.
Naoya said that he was going to use his winnings to also start playing more live tournaments, and that his dream as a poker player is to become a sponsored player. He plans to play some more Omaha tournaments over the summer as well as the Main Event.
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JUN 20
First Five With 2012 World Series of Poker Bracelet Winner Chris Tryba
On a day when Phil Ivey was grabbing all the headlines for making his fifth final table, it was Massachusetts native Chris Tryba who came out on top, winning his first WSOP bracelet in Event #35: $2,500 Mixed Hold’em. Tryba’s a true grinder who plays all over, including the East Coast and travels the WSOP Circuit as well. He’ll be taking home $210,107 for the win.
What was your first thought after winning?F**k yeah!
Who’s the first person you’re going to call?
My mom.
What’s the first thing you’re going to buy?
Nothing, I just bought a house.
What was the first turning point at the final table?In the limit round, I was able to get a lot of chips.
What’s the first thing you’re going do tonight to celebrate?
We’re going to go out to eat. His rail mentioned Fogo de Chao as a possible destination.
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JUN 20
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 24 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor
We took a stroll down to the Rio sports book this morning to get the odds on the two big tournaments playing out today, Event #34: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha / Six Handed and The Final Table of Event #35: $2,500 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit). Here's what they look like:
5k PLO
Hindin @ 10/1
Danchev @ 13/2
MacPhee @ 15/1
Cheong @ 20/1
Le @ 2/1
DeWitt @ 13/2
Bohlman @ 8/1
Kitai @ 7/2
De Maci @ 6/1
Kihara @ 3/2
Winzeler @ 4/12.5k Mixed Hold’em
Tryba @ 7/2
Behbehani @ 5/1
Foti @ 12/1
Gathy @ 5/2
Ivey @ 5/1
Wheeler @ 9/1
Golbuff @ 2/1
Cajelais @ 3/1
Van Den Bijgaart @ 3/2We expect a lot of money to go down on Phil Ivey as people will certainly feel he's due a bracelet...
The betting is open until 12:55 PM local time, so you still have time to come down to the Rio sports book and place bets.
How'd They Do?
Durrrr Tweets Of The Day
Since Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan seems to be using twitter a lot more in his absence from the series, we’re going to be bringing you the highlights each day until he arrives, which judging by his latest tweets (see how I tie it all in?) might be soon.
Here durrrr tweets at his friend Phil Galfond, referencing the hat bet that he once lost and saying that there may be another in the near future. Since that’s very much our forte here at PokerNews, watch this space.
Finally we bring you an actual hand of poker durrrr tweeted.
Celebrity Look-Alike
We see this guy playing all the smaller No-Limit Hold'em event, and today we finally realized who he looks like - Munky, the deadlocked member of the band Korn! Except Munky probably doesn't bring the baller diamond stud chalice everywhere with him!
Fashion Faux-Pas: Busted
Once again the PokerNews camera crew are an unpopular bunch in the Amazon room! Whenever we go on our rounds to take some pictures, we get venomous stares from the Rio's clientele! This Orange clad gentleman caught us out right just as we took his picture! We were going to pose the question "Why when he got up this morning did he couple his bright orange hoodie with his clashing deep red 'beats' headphones?". We were going to pose that question, but we won't.
What Is It With Girls And Guns?!
We saw these tweets from Liv Boeree and Vanessa Rousso about their day at the gun range in Las Vegas! Also featured in the photos is Maria Ho!
We'll keep you posted on what they're up to, and try to catch up with them tomorrow and ask them how they got on!
The Ivey Files
So, obviously Phil Ivey has made his fifth final table of the series. That’s old news in our book. Phil Ivey’s drive and hunger to win bracelets is well documented. What might be less well documents is how uninterested Ivey is in everything else to do with poker.
We weren’t the only ones railing Ivey’s final table push last. Big names David Benyamine and Brian’Stinger’ Hastings were also on the rail conversing with Ivey inbetween hands. Ivey knows Benyamine well, they’ve played together for years in the WSOP, on TV and in Bobby’s room. Benyamine was heckling Ivey a little bit, in good humor, and Ivey responded with a laugh and some banter of his own.
In contrast, when Stinger wandered over and told Ivey all about his Razz bust (a bad beat story) Ivey seemed entirely uninterested, before responding simply ‘bad beat’. Now, nobody likes hearing bad beat stories, they’re generic and underwhelming unless they happened to you, but this was something else entirely. It’s quite possible, we realized, that Ivey just doesn’t know who Stinger is.
As further evidence for Ivey just not caring at all about poker, he apparently met Vanessa Selbst for the first time yesterday. There were some rumors in 2009 that Ivey didn’t know Joe Cada won the main event after he busted, because he went home and just never asked who won.
On top of all this, earlier in the series Tom ‘kingofcards’ Marchese asked Ivey if he wanted to do a swap, and Ivey had no clue what a swap was. Someone once mentioned EV on High Stakes Poker and Ivey asked the other players “What’s EV?” before Daniel Negreanu Explained to him that it’s expected value.
It’s also worth noting that Ivey has worn the same grey Nike hoodie for about a week straight, where as many players are constantly shifting their wardrobe and getting noticed for it.
While the prize money of each event is probably peanuts to Ivey (with the exception of the one drop), there are rumors that he has pretty big bracelets bets on this year to motivate himself to grind harder. According to this tweet he allegedly can win four million with a bracelet win this summer.
PokerNews Podcast
Here's a behind the scenes look at PokerNews HQ, where todays podcast featuring Dan O'Brien was just recorded. We'll post the podcast up here just as soon as its ready.
Dan O'Brien, Danielle Barille, Rich RyanLex's Level
Lex Veldhuis just leveled everyone at PokerNews pretty hard. He tweeted saying that Steven Seagal was sitting on his right, and we went for it hook line and sinker, rushing to the Brasilia room to snap a pic of the eighties movie star. Check out this 'Look-Alike'.
Seen on Break
We saw Kara Scott on break in Event #38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. Apparently, someone had given her a board game titled "Poker Champ."
"So, you're a poker champ?" one dealer asked Scott.
"I guess so," She said. "Some guy just walked up to my table and handed me this."
Apparently, someone gave Ross Boatman a copy of the same game last night while he was playing in a tournament. Must be a British thing.
Can You See With Those Things On: Day 24
This one is a first. We saw a player today with see through sun glasses on:
Doesn't that defeat the purpose?
Card Protectors of the Day: Day 24
Seems like the $1,500 no-limit events always bring out the best in hair, hats, outfits, and last but not least card protectors. Here's some good ones that we found today:
Solid gold Buddha card protector.This gentleman was using a solid gold Buddha.
Humberto Brenes' trademark sharkWe hadn't seen it yet, so we were excited to see that Humberto Brenes had finally brought back his trademark "Chark" as well. Good to see it back.
We'll be sure to bring you any more awesome card protectors that we see throughout the second half of the World Series of Poker.
Girl And Their Guns: Update
Looks like Liv Boeree and Vanessa Rousso are done at the shooting range. They had a bet over who could hit their targets better, and Boeree won so now...
There were lots of replies, but Boeree picked one pretty quickly.
We'll keep an eye out to see if this materializes in the next few days!
Is it +EV to sit like this?
We think not. Don't fall sir. We want to make it through the series without having to call an ambulance.
#RealIveyTweets
After Phil Ivey busted the Mixed Hold'em, people began talking on twitter about his official twitter account. It's the general consensus that Ivey in fact doesn't write those tweets. Here are some more realistic tweets that Ivey would be likely to say:
Ivey wasn't knocked out of the Mixed Hold'em long before he entered Event #38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em #WhenWillItEnd.
The Card Protector Chronicles
So we've made another trip to the Brasilia room, and as we said earlier, the $1,500 events always bring out the best of the best. Here are some of the better card protectors that we found in the field:
The first one we saw was a jewel encrusted frog that may or may not have cost more than the tournament entry.
The next one we saw was a snow globe, which just seemed a little excessive to us.
The character Ham from Toy Story also decided to make appearance on this gentlemans cards. He seemed a bit embarrassed and tried to hide his protector, but eventually we were able to snap a quick picture.
The best one we saw as we made our way through the Brasilia room was this dinosaur riding on an iceberg. It doesn't get much better than that.
The Eight-Game Challenge - Day 2 - Answer Key
Yesterday we brought you a series of polls asking what you thought certain pros worst game was in the eight-game mix. As we promised, here are the answers provided from the pros themselves:
Jennifer Harman: Pot-Limit Omaha
Jonathan Duhamel: Stud 8-or-Better
Cyndy Violette: Pot-Limit Omaha
Dwyte Pilgrim: I play all the games well
Brent Hanks: Stud 8-or-Better
Most of the readers were able to guess the right answers, so hats off to you! We'll be sure to bring you more fun and games to play along with as the World Series of Poker goes on.
What's On Your Ears
Headphones are a prevalent accessory used by poker players on the felt. Some use headphones to listen to soothing music to avoid tilt, some may use them to avoid chatter with tablemates, others listen to music to get them in the zone. While roaming through the poker rooms in the Rio we saw an abundance of Beats By Dre headphones, but we also came across some others as well. What do you prefer?
Car Of The Day
We’ve posted some great car pictures throughout the series. We've run into Aston Martins, BMWs, and Audis in the Rio valet, but this is the first classic muscle car we’ve posted.
Celebrity Look Alike
Roaming through the Amazon room we came upon Event 37: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix, when we saw this gentleman who bears a striking resemblance to comedian Zach Galifianakis. What do you guys think?
Beard Of The Day
We've seen some great beards today, including our Galifinakis friend from earlier. That's a gnarly beard sir!
Cash Game Patrol
It’s relatively quiet tonight on the tournament front. With only Event 37: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix and Event 38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em running we decided to take a look around in the Rio cash game area to see if any notables were playing.
We spotted Erick Lindgren and Robert Williams III in a $25/$50 PLO game. Brandon Cantu is in a $50/$100 Limit Mix game. Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin is seated at a $100/$200 Limit Mix Game. Linda “The First Lady of Poker” Johnson is getting her grind on at a $75/$150 Omaha 8/b game.
Fashion Faux Paus Of The Night
Gotcha! This guy made a dash for the door when he saw us reach for the camera. Fortunately we caught the offender in his wife beater shirt and boxers prancing through the halls. Sorry buddy.
We encourage everyone to get involved with "The Muck." See something you think is Muck worthy? Send it to the muck@pokernews.com. We accept all media including photos and videos.
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JUN 20
First Five with 2012 World Series of Poker Bracelet Winner Max Steinberg
We caught up with 23 year old Max Steinberg minutes after he won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in Event #33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em. Steinberg defeated Samuel Gerber heads-up and 2778 other opponents over 3 days of this event.
What was your first thought when you won the bracelet?
Yes!! I mean, you heard me. I was just overcome with joy.
Who’s the first person you’re going to call?
My twin brother, I’m going to call him up and talk about it. He used to play poker, not anymore though.
What’s the first thing you’re going to do to celebrate?
Um, I might sleep. I might have some other plans but that’s private information [his friends cheer in the background]. I might have plans…
What was the first turning point of the match?
There was a point when I was short stacked and I had queen-nine, and I made a big call down on the turn and river to put me back up over a million chips, then I had some room to play. Then, when I was heads-up I made two pair on the river and raised it up and got a call. That tilted my opponent a little bit I think, and I was able to get the upper hand.
What’s the first thing you’re going to buy?
Nothing. I used to be that person, who would go out and buy something, but not nowadays.
And regarding his shirt and tie, Max told us that “you have to dress for success.”
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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JUN 19
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 23 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor
We took a stroll down to the Rio sports book this morning to get the odds on the only final table playing out today, Event #33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em. Here's what they look like:
Bradley Kopelson: 9/2
Vincent van der Fluit: 12/1
Max Steinberg: 9/2
Joseph Marzicola: 9/2
Noah Bronstein: 15/1
Matt Stout: 19/2
Ryan Laplante: 16/1
Samuel Gerber: 13/2
Vitaly Meshcheriakov: 4/1
David Nicholson: 11/2
Christopher Shaw: 15/2
Justin Zaki: 12/1
Dylan Hortin: 4/1
Mikhail Timoshin: 17/2The betting is open until 12:55 PM local time, so you still have time to come down to the Rio sports book and place bets. Tomorrow we'll bring you the odds for Event #34: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six Handed and Event #35: $2,500 Mixed Limit Hold'em.
Who "Wears" It Better?
We saw this player in the field for Event #36: $3,000 No-Limit Shootout and we had to do a double take. Betrand 'ElkY' Grospellier not wearing gel? No way, it couldn't be. And it was in fact not him. But the two men were definitely sporting the same bright blond hair color.
ElkY and the other blonde playerWe want to know who you think wears their bleach blond hair better. Let us know in the poll below.
Fashion Faux Pas: Day 23
We saw this gentleman in Event #36: $3,000 No-Limit Shootout.
Excuse me sir, I think those pants died with the 70s.Prop Bets Day 23: Lodden Thinks
We caught some players making an interesting set of prop bets earlier in Event #36: $3,000 No-Limit Shootout. Betrand 'Elky' Grospellier, Chris Klodnicki and Antonio Esfandiari were all playing a game of "Lodden Thinks." If you are unfamiliar with the rules of "Lodden Thinks," then you can watch this video.
In short, a topic is given, one player at the table picks a number, and the other players try to guess that number. The player who is closest wins the money.
When we approached the table, the question was "How much would you have to pay ElkY to legally change his name to Hellmuth for the rest of his life?" One player at the table, whose name was John, selected the number, and put it in his head, then players raised the number until they thought one of them was right.
"You can keep your first name, Betrand, whatever. You can keep ElkY, but you have to have you last name as Hellmuth, and your kids have to take it and everything," Esfandiari explained.
"My kids?!" ElkY said. "So sick."
Eventually the number reached $4.6 million, and Antonio bought. It was revealed that the number was $4.5 million, and Antonio shipped $300 from Klodnicki and Grospellier.
"So ElkY," Esfandiari asked. "How much would it really cost to change your name."
"Meh," ElkY said. "I don't know. I guess 20."
"20 million?!" Esfandiari exclaimed. "Are you serious? It's just a name!"
And with that, players moved on to the next question. "What are the chances of success, from 1-100%, of myself, Klodnicki, and ElkY robbing a bank?" Esfandiari asked. "We have a full year to prepare, we have to remove at least one item from the vault, and we can never be caught."
They Listen, They Really Listen
In prior weeks, we have been asking players what song in the hallways of the Rio tilts them the most, since we hear the same songs played on repeat through out the day. We've also made numerous request that the World Series of Poker changes their playlist. Today we say this tweet from David 'Doc' Sands that shows that maybe, just maybe, the Rio employees are listening to our request.
I am really disappointed with @WSOP. Haven't heard "Call me Maybe" OR "Wide Awake" playing in the bathrooms in over a week #justbadluck?
June 19 2012FollowWe think that would be #JustGoodLuck, 'Doc'.
Shirt Of The Day
At first glance we thought it was funny to see a man wearing a baby blue unicorn shirt, but upon further inspection…
Ice Rage Wars
We caught up with Galen Hall on the final table rail in Event 33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em. He was sweating Ryan Laplante. We wanted to follow up on Hall's tweet from earlier:
“It’s an IPad game. We’re pretty evenly matched. We like to compete and it gets intense. We had two furious one goal matches," Hall said.
Ice Rage on IPadWe’ll try to catch up with Scott Seiver and find out if there’s any interesting prop bets involved.
DoppleCheonger
We caught Joseph Cheong still alive in Event #34: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six Handed. Sitting next to Cheong was Don Nguyen, and we thought they looked very alike. Both have long black hair, a similar face, are wearing a pair of the exact same glasses, and are super sick at poker.
Joseph Cheong and Don NguyenNguyen may be a bit "healthier", but they definitely look like they could be cut from the same cloth.
What's on Your Head: Day 23
Dan Harrington is still alive in Event #35: $2,500 Mixed Limit Hold'em, and adorning his head is his trademarked green, Boston Red Sox hat.
Dan Harrington and his trademark green Boston Red Sox cap.For tradition sake, we're going to award him the Hat of the Day.
Worst Game in Eight-Game-Mix
Event 37: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix is underway. This tournament includes eight variations of poker: 2-7 Triple Draw, Limit-Hold’em, Limit Omaha 8/b, Razz, Limit 7 card stud, Stud 8/b, No-limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Hold’em.
We spoke to Cindy Violette, Jennifer Harman, and Team PokeStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel before they took their seats for the start of the tournament and asked them what they felt was their worst game of the eight disciplines. We thought it’d b be fun to have the Muck faithful guess.
We’ll catch up with more pros as the night progresses to get their thoughts and we’ll post the answers in tomorrow’s edition of The Muck.
Car Of The Day
If you keep up with the Muck (and if not, then you're doing it wrong!) you're familiar with our Car pic of the day feature. We cruise the valet parking lot in search of the coolest cars. Here's today's:
WSOP Blow Ups
It's no secret that the World Series of Poker is an emotional time for the players involved. There is a lot of money on the line, life changing amounts of money. Today, we witnessed one of the most intense blow ups that we've seen so far at the world series. We were in the room of the Event #36: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout and we were wandering around checking certain tables for interesting match ups.
One table we saw was heads-up between two players, whose names we won't mention to protect the identity of the players involved. Both players got the money all in and the player with the chip lead lost the hand in a brutal suck out fashion.
He proceeded to throw chips at the dealer, berate the other player, as well as huff and puff.
“I can't believe I keep coming here and putting my money into these f***** crap shoot tournaments against this f***** idiot players.”
“You sucked out on me before too, remember?” the other player said.
“I've never even been all in,” the angry player said. “F***** moron.”
The player proceeded to grab his bag of All American Dave's food and throw it forcefully against the wall, to which the floor was called, but no penalty was issued.
Some of the players at the table suspected that there was some kind of back story behind his anger and frustration.
Truly, this scene paints a picture of how emotional the World Series of Poker can be, and how mentally draining the tournaments are. We'll let you know if we see any more meltdowns in the coming days, as after 35 tournaments, players are bound to be at their wits end.
Worst Game In Eight-Game-Mix : Part 2
Hellmuth Bash
Rule number one of poker is: If you have a chance to make fun of Phil Hellmuth, you have to make fun of Phil Hellmuth. Today after busting, Hellmuth put out a tweet telling one story, while Christian Harder's tweet about busting him took a slightly different slant on the same story. Cole 'cts' South tweeted this picture today, contrasting the two tweets:
Cash Game Watch
If you bust a tournament there’s always the cash games. We went perusing around the cash game area of the Pavilion to see what notables are playing. We found Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis playing in a $5-$10 Pot-Limit Omaha game and Jean-Robert Bellande in a $25-$50 Pot-Limit Omaha table.
Thinly-Veiled Brag Of The Day
Check out this blatant 8 bracelet brag from Erik Seidel on twitter this evening. Struggling to think of a better reason to tweet a pic of his poster in the Rio, he pulled up the WSOP on the most innocuous of errors – spelling his first name wrong!
Don’t be such a spelling nit Erik!
Last Day For Main Event Give-Away
Tomorrow is the last day you can enter Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates competition to get a free trip to and seat at this years 10k Main Event!
For some background, incase you missed this, Jungleman is giving away the price of flights, accommodation and entry to the Main Event in a competition. To enter the competition you have to send Cates a video of yourself doing a random act of kindness.
This has been running for a bit under a month now but tomorrow the competition closes and people will vote on what the best video is. We think this is a pretty cool thing Cates is running. There’s no sign of him around the Rio at this point in time, but if we can find him in the next few weeks we’ll try to get the low-down on this offer.
For more info on the challenge, check out his blog here.
Sideline Report With Matt Stout
We caught up with Matt Stout on dinner break in Event 33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em. Despite arriving at the final table as one of the shortest stacks, Stout has grinded his way up and finds himself three-handed and in contention for the bracelet and the $440,238 payday.
We asked him about the journey from short stack to contender and also about the big flip he won shortly before dinner break after getting called by Joseph Marzicola in a questionable spot with deuces.
Make sure to keep up with the conclusion of the final table by following PokerNews' live reporting.
The Fashion Police
Our job, if you don’t know this yet, is to prowl the mean streets of the Rio casino and if anyone has taken a gamble and deviated from the standard, suburban American wardrobe, we snap a pic of them and embarrass them publicly by posting it up here.
Considering the one thing we have to accomplish every day is to make sure no bright colored hat goes unnoticed, I’m surprised it has taken us until 9:20 tonight to spot this one.
(Actually, the muck featured this hat a few days ago, but it deserves to be here again for sheer flamboyance).
In the last few weeks people have become more and more wary of the PokerNews team and their little black camera. This young gentleman may well have seen us coming, and shelled up in response. We love the geek-chic sweater vest though bro, and so does PokerNews reporter Lynn Gilmartin, quoted in HQ saying ‘I love Nerds’. She may have been talking about the purple, sour candies she was eating at the time though…
I’m Just A Girl: Part 2
This is our second installment of “I’m Just A Girl,” where we ask notable women poker players the lamest lines they hear on the felt.
We caught up Kara Scott on the rail of the Event 37: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix to find out what lame lines she’s heard.
“This guy managed to insult me and the dealer at the same time. He asked me if members of the poker media play as bad as poker dealers.”
We also followed up on Scott’s tweet from a few days ago:
I was going to order a cup of coffee but then @maridu came to say hi & honked my breasts. Twice. At the table. Not so sleepy anymore...
June 16 2012FollowWhen asked how shocked she was when Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck honked her breasts, Scott said, “On a scale of 1-10, it was an 11!”
Summer Roomies: Part 2
It’s been a while since we ran a piece about this summer’s room mates, but looking at some recent twitter activity from Cole 'cts' South, we thought it would be a topic worth re-visiting.
South said he came home to these pictures on the fridge, re-enacting the famous scene from the hit poker film ‘Rounders’.
South later tweeted this pic of him playing ‘High Stakes Trivial Pursuit’ with Brian ‘Stinger’ Hastings and Mike McNeil.
Cole South plays much less poker these days, as he’s concentrating on other projects, but there’s clearly still a degen in him…
We’ll try catch up with cts or stinger in the next couple of days and see how they’re enjoying the Vegas poker-house lifestyle!
The Ivey Files
The Night Shift – quickly re-titled: The Ivey Shift. Tonight we’re once again watching Phil Ivey go deep in an event. And, once again, his table is where all the railbirds are at. In one funny incident, a fan actually walked inside the tournament area and asked Ivey for a picture.
Ivey mania has hit the Rio as this remarkable man just keeps cashing. Even Phil Hellmuth is acknowledging his rivals unbelievable performances.
We’ll keep you updated on how Ivey’s run in Event #35: $2,500 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit) is going, and what the atmosphere on the rail is like.
The Eight Game Rumbles On
We caught up with some of the 8-game mix players on their final break of the the day to find out what their favorite and least favorite of the 8 games were.
Bertrand 'Elky' Grospellier told us that he "Loves Stud and Stud 8" but "Can't stand Razz".
Jason Mercier was running back from break, but had time to tell us that he really likes triple draw at the moment, but thinks limit hold'em is boring.
Brian 'Stinger' Hastings was in even more of a rush, but the answers to our questions came quick to his mind as he laughed "I much prefer PLO, and I like Limit Hold'em the least. And it's not even close".
We caught Andrew Robl, who told us that he didn't want to discuss his weakest game at this point, and Andy Bloch who confidently said "It depends on what game my opponents like the least, I can play them all".
The Scotty Nguyen Effect: Episode Two
While Phil Ivey's corner of the Amazon room is dominating in terms of railbirds, Scotty Nguyen has scored himself a few tonight, and for good reason. Scotty is constantly chatting with the rail, standing up and posing for pictures, and just now bought a round of beers for anyone on his rail. There's a reason Scotty's one of the most popular guys in poker, and if this keeps up he'll win a few more fans off Ivey before the night is out.
We encourage everyone to get involved with "The Muck." See something you think is Muck worthy? Send it to the muck@pokernews.com. We accept all media including photos and videos.
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JUN 18
First Five with 2012 WSOP Bracelet Winner Larry Wright
“The Greatest Father’s Day Gift,” were the first words uttered from Texas native Larry Wright after he won Event #30: $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball for $101,975. Wright bested a final table that included Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Andrew "luckychewey" Lichtenberger, Erick Lindgren, and Brandon Cantu.
What was your first thought after you won?
Overcome with emotion, Wright paused for a moment and said, “I thought of my wife and my daughter who were sitting over there [pointing to the rail].”
Who’s the first person you’re going to call?
My other daughter.
What’s the first thing you’re going to do to celebrate tonight?
I’ll turn it over to my wife. Mrs. Wright obliged and said, “We’re gonna party.“
What was the first turning point in the heads-up match?
I got in Brandon’s [Cantu]head a little. Cantu played his heart out, but got a little frustrated.
Who was the first person to congratulate you?
My wife.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news. -
JUN 18
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 22 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
The Morning Grind
Today should be a fun day here at the Rio, with lots of big name sightings before noon. We spotted Vanessa Selbst, Aaron Jones, Andrew ‘LuckyChewy’ Lichtenberger, Mike Sexton and Chance Kornuth.
With Event #34: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha / Six Handed bringing in all the big names today, players seem to be anxious to begin, with all the usual late-showers turning up in good time for the event! I guess PLO really is the most fun game to play.
10k H.O.R.S.E. Odds
This morning we swung by the sports book in the Rio to check out the odds on Event #32: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. There were no real surprises as we looked down the list, with John Monnette the favorite at 2/1.
Phil Hellmuth followed close behind at 7/2, as he hunts for bracelet #13. Also in with a shout are David Bach at 4/1, David Bakes Baker at 9/2 and Matt Waxman at 5/1.
The Rio sports book also gives Phil Ivey an outside chance at 15/1. We’re pretty sure you could get better personal odds around the World Series Of Poker, with lots of pros backing Ivey heavily to win a bracelet in every event he plays.
Elsewhere, 2009 Main Event winner and current Event #31 chip leader Joe Cada is a strong favorite to win the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Event. He’s 2/1 with just 19 players left.
Early (Rail) Birds
We walked by the Final Table of Event #29: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship at 12:15 this morning to find the rail absolutely jammed with Railbirds of all ages. Just as we snapped this picture, Hoyt Corkins was eliminated in 4th place for a $199,000 payday. All the players stood up, shook his hand, and saw him off in the typical, friendly fashion that this event has become known for.
This is the busiest rail we’ve seen this early in the morning and we’re in for an exciting day as Bob Phelps, Allyn Jaffrey Shulman and Dennis Philips, sporting his trademark red Saint Louis cap, battle it out for the top prize, and a gold bracelet.
Look-Alike?
While walking by the final two tables for Event 31: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em this afternoon we had to do a double take. Sitting next to JC Tran is Michael Aron, 3rd in chips right now, and we think he's the splitting image of Brian 'sbrugby' Townsend
Tennis Prop Bet: Day 22
The other day we met up with Lex Veldhuis to ask him about his twitter tennis prop bet challenge, and who he might play. He talked about Brandon Adams, and mentioned that he knows Andre Akkari plays a lot. Today we met up with Andre Akkari to see where he’s at with tennis, and whether he might consider playing Veldhuis in a prop bet.
“I’ve never played with Lex before” Akkari tells us. “He played Patrik[Antonius] not long ago is that right? And they were very close?”
Your PokerNews hero informs Akkari that it was Brandon Adams who played Patrik, and that Patrik won.
“Oh yes, Brandon Adams looks like a very good player. Patrik is semi-professional and Brandon played well against him, so I wouldn’t want to play Brandon I don’t think. I’m a relative beginner compared to Brandon”.
“I don’t know the level that Lex is at, I would have to watch him play. I play here in Las Vegas a lot with friends. I play with the girls from PokerNews too”.
“I think I might play Lex though. You should set up the match” Laughs Andre, before bidding us adieu.
Outfits Of The Day
We spotted these two outfits while meandering through the remaining field for Event 33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em.
First up we have a man who knew exactly what he was doing when he got dressed this morning. Here, himself and his neighbor have a chuckle when they see us hovering nearby trying to snipe a pic of his fabulous suit and leather hat combo.
Next up we see the rare ‘pink spacesuit’. This gent's afternoon attire consists of a near lethal dose of pink, matching a pink hoody with a pink burberry hat, topped off with some reflective sunglasses and a classic, straight chip stack.
#vogueCan You See In Those? - Day 22
He saw this picture of Jason Mercier on twitter wearing the sweetest novelty shades on the circuit. Can you see in them Jason?
#JustGoodLuck
Check out this picture 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela just tweeted. He tweeted to his friend Gavin Smith
"How am I running now???"
Guess he's running pretty good now...
Railbird Heaven
Hastings, Galfond, BlomThe field for today’s Event #34: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha / Six Handed is one of the toughest we’ve seen so far in the tournaments. While Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan still hasn’t shown his face in this hemisphere, we’re seeing the first of Phil Galfond recently. He completes a trio of the best online nosebleed PLO players in the whole world, who are all playing in today’s event.
While right now Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond, Brian ‘Stinger’ Hastings and Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom are in far corners of the Brasilia room, everyone is dreaming of a final table with those three duking it out for the bracelet. Everyone knows the history these have online, including the famous day when Brian Hastings beat Viktor Blom for over $4 million, so here's hoping we see some fireworks before the end of the event...
Hellmuth 1-0 For The Series
Photo Courtesy Of WSOPWell, they’re at it again. Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth are now officially at another final table together, this time at the Event #32: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. final table. This is Ivey’s 4th final table of the series thus far, and Hellmuth has already added a 12th bracelet to his infamous hoard.
Phil Ivey opened the day as the smallest stack, with the bookmakers giving 15/1 on him taking the event down. Unbelievably, Ivey is now second to chips to b and is looking like the favorite to take this down. He has looked in the zone all day at the table, before shooting out the back door to his trailer on the breaks.
With the rail being likely to grow and grow as the night goes on, we’ll be sure to keep you posted on what the atmosphere is like at Ivey FT#4
Tweet Of The Day
Marc Karam is on fire with the tweets these past few weeks! We think this is a pretty good idea, so we thought we would post it up here. The World Series Of Poker need to bring in a rule quick to stop clones entering the tournament, because once this idea is out there Phil Ivey's not gonna be safe anywhere!
Early Negotiations?
Lex Veldhuis (foreground), Andre AkkariGuess who got drawn together in todays Event #35: $2,500 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit)? None other than the would-be tennis rivals Andre Akkari and Lex Veldhuis. Perhaps, with this morning's interview fresh in his mind, Akkari will start negotiations for a tennis prop bet with Veldhuis. We might even swing by the table and give them a gentle reminder before the day is out...
The Railbirds Have Returned: Philapalooza Pt. 2
We've seen some big rails this series so far; Phil Ivey's first final table, his second final table, the seniors championship final table, Phil Hellmuth's 12 bracelet win. It seems as if though this is the biggest rail so far though, as it is a culmination of all the former big rails. We now have Ivey at his third final table of the series and Hellmuth is going for his 13th bracelet already.
Maridu Mayrinck tweeted an interesting statistic about Phil Ivey earlier:
Question: how many days within the last 10 that @philivey played poker was he not at an event that he final tabled? The correct answer is 1
June 18 2012FollowThere are nearly 300 people in the "Thunder Dome" for tonight's final table, many of them can't even find seats and are standing along the outer ring:
The rail for event #32All eyes will be on the arena tonight, as both Phils once again compete for a bracelet on the same night. This final table will also have a huge impact on the player of the year standings as John Monnette, Phil Hellmuth, and Phil Ivey are all in the top ten points leaders for the player of the year race.
What's On Your Head: Day 22
This one is a first:
We saw this guy on the rail of event #32.This kid has not one, but two hats on. The only question we could really think of is "why?"
The Chainsaw on the Rail
We saw Allen 'Chainsaw' Kessler on the rail of Event #32 so we decided to grab him and ask him a few questions.
We asked Kessler who he was rooting for at the final table. "I played a lot with Phil Ivey as we were coming up, so I'm rooting for him."
We also asked Kessler who he thought had the best chance of winning. "Well I don't know who has all the chips." So we informed Kessler that Phil Hellmuth and John Monnette were leading the pack.
"I don't think any one can really stop Monnette if he has chips."
We asked Kessler if he was playing any tournaments, or if he was just on the rail today. "I just busted from the mixed hold'em event," Kessler said. "It has the worst structure I've ever seen. We were already playing 300/600 limit in the third hour."
Better luck next time, Chainsaw. We'll see if any other pros are on the huge rail as well and see if we can get them to give us their predictions.
What's On Your Head: Day 22, Part 2
We like to reserve the term, "Straight Up G," for certain occasions. Sebastian Bastian is that certain occasion.
One of the best hats we've seen so farBastian is currently playing in Event #34: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six Handed, which started earlier in the day. Currently, Bastian is 10th in chips and we're going to attribute his string of good luck to his lucky, floppy, red hat.
The Other RailWhile many people are still gathered around the Event #32: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. final table, even after Phil Ivey's elimination in 5th place, there is a whole other crowd gathered around the final table for Event #31: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em to watch 2009 Main Event winner Joe Cada try to win his second World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
The rail for Event #31We estimate that at least 90 percent of the rail is drinking as many people are holding beers, and there is empty cans and boxes scattered around the secondary feature table.
Many of the people on the rail are having fun poking at annoucer Tom Chow, who has a thick asian accent. "We can't tell if you're saying Cada or Carter," one man on the rail yelled.
During one hand, Tom Chow said, "The raise is to 151,000." To which one rail bird yelled, "There isn't any 1,000 chips in play any more."
"Sorry, I meant 150,000," Chow responded, whist everyone on the rail had a good laugh at his expense.
Two particular railbirds, Uncle Willy and Skomojo (as indicated by their shirts), are having a particularly good time, poking fun as Chow as well as making some prop bets for iPads.
Uncle Willy and SkomojoEven 2010 Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel is rooting for Cada to take home his second bracelet:
While much of the rail is quiet, watching Phil Hellmuth in Event #32, it's obvious where all the fun is at on the rail for Event #31.
Ivey is Losing it
We caught this hand earlier in the live reporting blog:
The board read
and Phil Ivey took his time before opting to check. Huck Seed was next to act and he took a few moments himself, before putting out a bet of 1,400.The table played the waiting game again, seeing if Ivey would make the call or not. In the end though Ivey measured out the call, and held the necessary chips in his hand. Ivey pump faked a few times with his hands in the air making airplane noises before dropping the chips in the pot with a smile on his face.
Seed flipped over
, and Ivey put his hands up in the air with a "oh well" hand gesture and mucked his cards.We think Ivey might be playing a bit too much. Maybe three final tables in a ten day span was just too much for him.
Heads-Up
There are two intense matches going on right now at the World Series of Poker. David Bakes Baker and John Monnette are heads-up in Event #32: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. while across the Rio, Joe Cada and Carter Phillips are heads up in Event #31: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em.
The rail is still huge as at least a hundred people are standing around the rail to see if Cada can win his second bracelet.
On the other side of the Rio, it looks as if the match is coming to an end between Monnette and Baker. If Monnette can seal the deal it will be his third bracelet, and second of this year, while if Baker wins, it will be his second bracelet. Both matches are extremely intense, with spectators staying extremely quiet between hands, and cheering and shouting when a player wins a pot. The atmosphere in the Pavilion room at the secondary feature table is alive with excitement and energy as Cada aims for his second bracelet.
We Have A Winner!
David Bakes Baker just won Event #32: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. for $451,779 and his second World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
Earlier in the day Sarah Grant was able to catch up with 'Bakes' during a break in the tournament. In the video she asks 'Bakes' about his marching band career and asks him to do his Thriller dance.
Here are some reactions from pros on Baker's win:
Behind every great poker player is an amazing woman! Congrats @DMBakes @Maridu, two very inspirational roomies :)
June 19 2012FollowI AM SO HAPPY! @DMBakes JUST WON HIS 2ND BRACELET! He is an amazing player, more important he is an amazing person. Ty all for the love
June 19 2012FollowWe got a chance to catch up with Maridu Mayrinck, Baker's girlfriend, after the match. Mayrinck was extremely overjoyed for Baker's win.
Mayrinck on the rail for Event #32"Isn't this amazing?!" she said. "I can't believe he just won. This is so crazy."
We asked Mayrinck if Baker's win would inspire her performance for the rest of the series.
"He always inspires me," she said.
We asked what the plans were for celebrating Baker's win.
"Him and all his friends want to go to Musashi and get drinks, but I'm so tired, I don't think I can handle that right now. David is bringing his mother outside to get her a cab, then he's coming in to get his box."
In the Pavilion room, Cada and Phillips are still heads up, and it could still go either way.
We encourage everyone to get involved with "The Muck." See something you think is Muck worthy? Send it to the muck@pokernews.com. We accept all media including photos and videos.
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