The Muck
Card Guards
Bernard Lee
George Lind III
Maverick Movie
Off the Felt
-
JUL 30
This is How We Troll: Joe Sebok Drama and Making the WSOP Main Event a Reentry
TwoPlusTwo can be scary. If you’re a first-time visitor, it’s hard to process all of the threads, and if you post you could be flamed. Badly. Posters have no mercy. So, if you’re afraid to lurk, or you’re just looking for the best threads at the moment, we thought we would lend a helping hand — and add our input.
Let the trolling begin.
1. WPT signs Joe Sebok (Edit: Not happening)
It all started when Jeanine Deeb, the daughter of professional poker player Freddy Deeb, tweeted the following: “Look who has joined the @WorldPokerTour teaaam!!!! @joesebok WOOHOO!! ❤”
The tweet also included a picture of Joe Sebok, but it has since been deleted.
*According to source close to the World Poker Tour, Sebok wasn't signing a sponsorship deal, rather he was going to run the live updates and the live stream. Not long after the thread was started, Kevmath announced that Sebok will not be joining the WPT, and perhaps it’s because the majority of the TwoPlusTwo posters protested the alleged hiring. And, while News, Views, and Gossip can be flooded with white noise, numerous influential pros spoke up in the thread, including Isaac Haxton, who said the following:
It's not like he was an investigative journalist who tried his best to dig up a story and failed. He was a paid representative of UB, spun that role as some sort of "I'm gonna get to the bottom of this!" bull****, learned nothing, and then turned around and assured people that it was safe to play on UB.
The people who believed him lost every dime they had on the site when the **** hit the fan. He continues to tweet about his awesome life and his sweet house on Hermosa Beach that he pays for with money UB stole and gave to him to tell people they weren't crooks. He's never even made a proper public apology or admitted his role in helping UB rob more people.
If anything, he doesn't get enough hate. The fact that poker-related businesses continue to pay him money to use his name in association with their products is mind-blowing.
Haxton’s view has received so much support that it’s been included in the original post.
Since signing with Ultimate Bet in September 2009, Sebok’s image in the poker industry has taken a significant hit because he was unable to uncover any evidence from the infamous UB/Absolute Poker scandal. In an interview with PokerNews, Sebok said: “I hope that fans and players rest easier knowing that I am a UB pro now. I will absolutely be keeping both eyes open and will be the first to call out any wrongdoing if any were to happen there.”
In the year and a half before Black Friday, little significant information was released. When Black Friday hit, UB’s funds were frozen, and the company has shown no interest in refunding the players.
Singling out Sebok for all of UB’s wrongdoings is unfair, and I’m certain that he regrets some of his decisions while working with Paul Leggett and the gang, but unlike other members of Team UB, Sebok was “an intermediary between Ultimate Bet staffers and the site’s all-star roster of players.” While Eric Baldwin, Maria Ho, Brandon Cantu, Adam Levy and others simply represented the site on the felt, Sebok was speaking publicly on behalf of the entire operation, which carries significantly more weight. So, when the ship went down, the poker world didn’t look to the players for answers, they looked to the two captains, Sebok and Legget. When Sebok couldn’t provide any answers, the poker community vilified him.
Before signing with UB, Sebok was undoubtedly one the “good guys” in poker. PokerRoad, a multimedia poker site, which he created with his father Barry Greenstein, was very influential within the community, and being media friendly, Sebok was always portrayed in a positive light. Sebok also went deep in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing 56th ($108,047). However, once your image is damaged — whether it’s deserved or not — it’s very difficult to rebuild. The WPT put itself in a bad situation by publicly negotiating with Sebok, especially when there are so many entertaining people to choose from in the poker world.
No other news has surfaced regarding the position the WPT was interviewing for, and Sebok declined to comment on the matter.
2. View: Main Event a re-entry?
If they’re not locked and deleted, the majority of “view” threads on NVG are short-lived. However, "camz2895’s" thread about the WSOP Main Event being changed to a reentry event garnered nearly 5,600 views and 94 posts. The original poster gave an example that the WSOP Circuit main events are reentry events, but the majority of the posters disagreed with the idea.
Some of the posters in the thread confused reentry tournaments with rebuy tournaments, and there is a stark difference between the two. In reentry tournaments, the players literally have to reregister for the tournament once they’re eliminated. Thus, they pay the juice again, and they get moved to a different table. In rebuy tournaments, players don’t move from the table they’re at, rather they simply reload their chips when they “add on” or lose all their chips. The WSOP staff questioned the integrity of rebuy tournaments a few years ago however, and eliminated them from the schedule because they didn’t want players to be able to “buy a bracelet.”
In general, I’m in favor of reentry events because they increase prize pools. Larger prize pools attract more players and create more buzz, which is good for the game. Most reentry events are smaller buy-in events however, and none of them generate $62 million prize pools. The Main Event is perfect as it is. The buy-in is perfect, the field size is perfect, and more importantly, the dichotomy of professional players and amateurs is perfect. Unless the value of the dollar plummets or rises exponentially, the format of the Main Event should never change.
If the Main Event became a reentry event, then two distinct things would happen: (1) Day 1a of the Main Event would become the biggest, craziest day of poker each year. Professional players with multiple bullets would emerge from the day with either half a million chips or none. In turn, (2) amateur players would be overwhelmed. The Main Event is great because everybody is on the same playing field, and everybody has an equal shot at winning millions of dollars and becoming the world champion. If professional players are suddenly given extra opportunities, then the tournament would become less special.
As much as we root for professional players to go deep, we love to see Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Dennis Phillips, and Darvin Moon at the final table — it gives us an opportunity to be able to sit on our couches and ask ourselves, “Why not me?”
From a pure money-making standpoint, then, making the Main Event a reentry event is a no-brainer. But it would simply ruin everything. Keep the tradition, protect the amateur players, and don’t mess with a perfect tournament.
*Update: Additional information was discovered and added at 4:50 p.m. PDT
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
-
JUL 25
All Mucked Up: The Top 10 Card Protectors from the 2012 WSOP
We saw plenty of card protectors at the 2012 World Series of Poker. We snapped plenty of photos of them and each day we added them to our summer series, All Mucked Up. If your brains are anything like ours, you probably forgot most of the ones you saw. Luckily for you, we've chosen our top 10 card protectors from the summer. Enjoy.
Next ›No. 10 of our top ten card protectors count down is this man’s bear figurine, which only makes it in because of how insistent the man was that we took a picture of it. He even held up a sheet of paper behind it so we could get it clearer. The power of persistence -- we award No. 10 to the brown bear.
Displaying: 1 of ?
Do you have any favorites from our All Mucked Up coverage? Let us know in the comments section below and as always, follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
-
JUL 16
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 50 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!
A Legend Will Rise: Day 7
It’s day seven of the 2012 WSOP Main Event. Of the 6,598 entries only 27 remain. Which players will make the Octo-Nine? We’ll find out today. There are plenty of interesting story lines. Will we have a woman make the Main Event final table? Two still remain, Elisabeth Hille (9,7770,000) and Gaelle Baumann (6,295,000). Can Marc Ladoceur (15,875,000) and Daniel Strelitz (12,790,000) ride their big stacks to October glory? Will Greg Mearson capture the top spot in the POY standings? Stay tuned, as PokerNews will be answering all those questions and more. Here are images of the three feature tables before the start of play:
Views From The Rail
Pereyra on rightWe spotted poker pros Andres Pereyra and Jamie Armstrong on the rail sweating Daniel Strelitz who got off to a rocky start during the first level of play today. An untimely bluff followed by a lost flip knocked him down to 3 million chips at one point, but he’s managed to grind his stack back up to over 9.5 million chips.
We asked Armstrong if he had given any advice to Sterlitz before the start of the day.
“No, not really, I just told him to keep it going,” Armstrong said. “He knows what to.”
Pereyra has a financial interest in Strelitz.
“He’s my horse, I have a piece. I’m excited for the rest of the day.”
Also spotted was 2012 WSOP bracelet winner, Ronnie Bardah, sweating Paul Volpe, with chants of, "Lets go Paul V, lets go Paul V."
BardahProp Bet Update
Robert Buckenmayer, our oldest grindersAs 54 year old Roland Israelashvili was just eliminated from the Main Event, we thought we'd post a quick update of how the high stakes prop bet - whether someone over the age of forty would win the Main Event this year - was doing. Israelavili's exit means that there are only 3 Main Event contenders over the age of 40 left, and they're squaring up against 21 of the best young guns in the game! The 3 over 40s left are Steven Gee, Michael Esposito and the 67 year old Robert Buckenmayer. The players involved in this prop bet, Barry Greenstein, Mike Sexton, Doyle Brunsen and Brian 'stinger' Hastings among others, have been giving 10-1 that a player over 40 will win the bracelet. The youngsters currently outnumber the golden oldies 7-1! The youngest player left is Jacob Balsiger, who is 21 years old.
Sights In The Amazon
We spotted Antonio Esfandiari leaving the Amazon room in a rush. We caught up to him to ask who’s his pick to win the Main Event.
“I don’t even know who’s in it,” said a smiling Esfandiari. When you’re the One-Drop champ you can afford to have more pressing worries.
Here’s Daniel Strelitz being interviewed by Kara Scott after being eliminated in 24th place. He’ll be taking home $294,601.
We Have A Winner!
Jason Mercier was just announced the winner of the 25k fantasy draft for the this year World Series Of Poker. It was tight at the end, but Yuval Bronshtein's 23rd-place finish was enough to confirm Jason winning... Or was it?!?! New information tells us that if Paul 'paulgees' Volpe makes a push to finish 1st or 2nd in in chips for the October Nine then Bryn Kenney's team will actually steal the title from under Mercier's nose - it will all be decided today as the October Nine finish is not what matters, but what positions they finish in chips today.
So Bryn Kenney has an outside chance depending on Volpe's performance tonight, otherwise Jason Mercier will be winning $178,750 for his win! We'll keep you posted.
-
JUL 15
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 49 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!
Featured
There are only 97 players left in the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event so the Rio has been cleared out for the most part. Today at the Main Feature Table is Vanessa Selbst, who always makes for some interesting poker TV.
The ESPN Main Feature Table for SundaySelbst will begin the day relatively short stacked, but with her skills, she of course always has a chance to run even deeper into the tournament.
At the secondary feature table is Gavin Smith, Amnon Filippi, Yuval Bronshtein and A.J. Jejelowo which should provide for some very interesting table talk throughout the day from Smith and Filippi.
The ESPN Secondary Feature TablePlayers will play today down to 27 players, or even further depending on how fast play goes. If 27 players is not reached by the 5th level of play today, players will play even longer. Tournament staff has announced a shuffle up and deal, so cards are now in the air!
Be sure you check out the live reporting blog for all the tournament updates throughout the day.
Main Event Groutfit
It's been a while since we were able to bring you a groutfit, or a grey on grey outfit, but we finally found one here in the Main Event. This player decided it was in his best interest to great grey cargo sweats/pants + a grey sweater as well.
GroutfitSure took long to find one, but will bring you more if we find any.
Murderers Row
There is another set of feature tables under the banners of the past Main Event champions near the door in the Amazon Room. We've been calling this section murderers row because it always seems that the best players find their way to this section.
At the furthest table from the door is a table that features former chip leader Paul Volpe. Also at the table is Jeremy Ausmus who has eight cashes from this years World Series of Poker.
At the middle table sits one of the final four women (Susie Zhao was recently eliminated), Gaelle Baumann. Also at that table is David "ODB" Baker, who still has a shot at Player of the Year honors.
Then, at the closest table to the door sits Sam Holden, Elizabeth Hille and Erik Cajelais.
Cajelais may be the ripped one, but check out Sam Holden showing off his muscles to the table. This should make for some interesting TV.
How To Win WSOP POY
Interestingly, Greg Merson, who currently sits in sixth place on the 2012 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Leaderboard, is only 87.75 points behind the current leader, Phil Ivey, who racked up 568.70 points this summer. As we understand it, even if Merson falls short of the final table and busts today, he will earn 75 points for his deep run, which means he’d be just 12.75 from the lead. With that said, a final table appearance would put Merson in the top spot headed into the World Series of Poker Europe.
Gregory MersonIn order for David “ODB” Baker, who currently sits in seventh place, to overtake Phil Ivey on the 2012 WSOP Player of the Year Leaderboard, he’ll need to finish seventh or higher. Likewise, Vanessa Selbst would have to finish fifth or higher to overtake Ivey, and that’s provided Baker doesn’t finish seventh or better. There’s
DAvid "ODB" Baker
Vanessa SelbstHere’s a look at the current WSOP POY standings:
Current 2012 WSOP Player of the Year Standings
Place Player Points 1 Phil Ivey 568.70 2 John Monnette 524.25 3 Phil Hellmuth 500.70 4 Antonio Esfandiari 488.10 5 Michael Mizrachi 486.20 6 Gregory Merson 481.13 7 David “ODB” Baker 433.38 8 Andy Frankenberger 406.66 9 Andy Bloch 405.30 10 Vanessa Selbst 388.17 Also, here’s a look at how WSOP POY points will be awarded for the Main Event:
2012 WSOP Player of the Year Points
Finishing Position Points 1 500 2 350 3 250 4 220 5 190 6 165 7 140 8 120 9 100 Remaining Top 20% 75 Next 30% 50 Bottom 50% 25 There are even more players in the mix for 2012 WSOP POY, and we'll be bringing you various updates and scenarios throughout the day.
-
JUL 14
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 48 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!
Did You Even Go Home?
Here we are, day 5 of the Main Event and the grind is starting to wear on people. We stumbled up to this man asleep right outside the PokerNews HQ on the famous couch that has housed Gus Hansen and Jennifer Tilly naps already this series. It's 11:30 am, has he been here all night? It looks like his hotel room, he has the laptop plugged in to charge and an implicit 'do not disturb sign' hanging in thin air. We adhered to his wishes and were as quiet as we could be when he took this pic!
Old School Intro
Yesterday we blogged about Perry Green, the 3 time bracelet winner and relative legend of the World Series Of Poker! Well PokerNews are always ahead of the curve, as today Green is getting big attention as the oldest contestant in the room at the ripe age of 72! Green did this morning's 'Shuffle Up And Deal' where he spoke about his 56 year long marriage and the time he lost to Stu Ungar heads up for a bracelet!
"The most common question people ask me about the old days is 'what was it like to play heads up against Stu Ungar?' Well the truth is it's no more difficult than playing against any of you guys remaining." Perry told the crowd, presumably in a shameless attempt at Main Event Metagame.
A Legend Will Rise: Day 48
Last night's chip leader Paul Volpe was looking fresh this morning as he bids to fight his way to the final table. Volpe has over two million in chips, as does online tournament phenom David D'Alesandro, seated at the far end of the Amazon room. Unfortunately for D'Alesandro, he has a medium stacked Joseph Cheong directly to his left, one of the players people dread seeing the most this year.
If anyone more huge battles come to our attention in the course of the day, we'll be sure to post them!
On Break With Paul Volpe
We caught up with current chip leader Paul ‘paulgees’ Volpe on break to talk about his tough table, some big hands and being in the limelight.
So your table’s pretty tough, what do you know about these guys?
Yeah the tables awful, its defintely the worst I’ve played at. ADZ [Matt Marafioti] just got moved there right before break, there’s a Malicious [David Randall], Taylor [Paur] and Joe Cheong too who I’ve played with a lot online and I know that they’re three of the best around. It’s been super tough, but I just have to get through the day, every day is different.
How has the day gone so far?
It’s gone well, I have 3.5 million right now. To start the day I dropped down a bit. My 3Bs weren’t working or I was getting shoved on, and I just chipped down a bit. I lost one bit pot where I bet the river on a four spade board to try to fold out pairs and I got called by two black eights.
I won a big pot then [At the table of death] where a young german kid opened first to act and malicious called and I squeezed with AQ of diamonds. German guy shoves 69 of spades and I call. Flop came A95 and I turned him dead with another A. That brought me up to 3.5 Million.
How are you feeling? Are you having fun going this deep?
I feel great. I really hope I can keep going and make the November Nine, or the October eight or whatever it’s going to be called. I don’t love all the cameras though, I’m not used to it. I don’t mind talking to you, but there’s cameras in my face every second. Hopefully I’ll get used to it and deal with it better in the future though.
Strategy With Timothy Adams
Timothy Adams secured his 5th cash of this years WSOP yesterday when he made the money in the Main Event. Timothy, or ‘TimOthee’ as he’s known online, even won a bracelet in June’s Event 28 - $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Four Handed. Adam’s secured a huge pot just before break to move up to the 2.5 million mark, and nearer to chip leader Paul Volpe. Here’s what he had to say about that hand.
“So this guy called Dave [D'Alesandro] had just sat down and had been opening a lot of pots. We’re pretty deep so I pick up 33 and decide to 3B it to retake some initiative. I think most people would call there but I think it plays better like this when we’re deep. He calls. “
“Flop comes 722 with two spades and I bet 101,000. I bet here to protect my equity with a hand like JT, and also to get value from a hand like AQ high. I turn gin 3 of spades, so I’m pretty happy and I just bet 222,000. I get another call.”
"The river is an offsuit Q so I just bet an amount that I would bet with my bluffs, which I thought was 392,000. He calls so I rocket up to 2.5 million in chips so now I’m super deep.”
“Honestly, I’m so much more comfortable deep. I play all cash, I’m trying to transition to playing more tournaments but coming from a deep cash background I’m going to have a big advantage over people when we play deep. So I’m very comfortable moving into the next level.”
-
JUL 13
The Five Toughest Tables from the 2012 World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker always brings out the best competition from all over the world, which is why we are not surprised to see tough tables in the mix. But 2012 was a year of many tough tables, including one that many people are calling the toughest of all time, so we've put together a list of five of this year's toughest tables:
#5: The First Table of Death
It was early in the series that we found our first Table of Death and it only took two events to get there. Amidst the madness in Event #2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, this lineup emerged while the players were well into the money:
Phil Hellmuth
Hoyt Corkins
John Juanda
Vanessa SelbstWe even managed to get an orbit of what it was like at this table with pro Alan Sass.
Vanessa Selbst went on to finish fourth in the event, while Brent Hanks walked away as the winner.
#4: The Toughest Main Event Table:
It's not often you find a table so stacked in the Main Event on the first few days, which is why we were surprised when we found one on Day 2c. In a field of starters, Johnny Chan, Randy Lew, Shannon Shorr, Lee Watkinson, and Andy Frankenberger all sat down at the same table.
Shannon Shorr, Andy Frankenberger, Johnny Chan, and Randy Lew all at the same tableThe five players have around $18,500,000 in live winnings combined. Chan boasts the most with his $7,000,000 in winnings and Lew brings up the rear with around $800,000. Lew might be on the bottom of the totem pole in terms of live life time winnings compared to these older pros, but he is very young and possessed more chips than anyone else at the table. By the end of Day 2c, Lew and Frankenberger had both fallen at the hands of Johnny Chan. I guess we know who came out ahead.
#3: The Lowball Madness Starting Table
The field was stacked in Event #60: $10,000 2 – 7 Lowball (No-Limit), and due to that we saw some of the most incredible table draws ever. Here's the deadliest one we found in the bunch:
Seat 1: Unknown Player
Seat 2: George Danzer
Seat 3: Chino Rheem
Seat 4: Justin Bonomo
Seat 5: Michael Binger
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein
The 2 - 7 Table of DeathOnly one player from this starting table managed to book a cash, and it was George Danzer who finished in third place, taking home $115,295.
#2: The Mix Max Table of Death
In Event #6: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Mix Max, we saw another insane table draw that just kept getting tougher and tougher. At the table was Erik Seidel, Chris Moorman, Jason Mercier, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, JC Tran, and one player who had zero World Series of Poker cashes, Kirill Kruglov. Kruglov must have felt like a very small fish in a very large pond at the table full of sharks.
Erik Seidel at the Table of Death in Event #6Unfortunately for all the players at this table, none of them were able to lock up a cash in the event. Oh well, on to the next one.
#1 The Toughest Table of All Time?
All of the sharks came out to play the Big One for One Drop, but none of them expected to be put in the same tank as the others. Jason Mercier, Phil Ivey, Ben Lamb, Antonio Esfandiari, Eugene Katchalov, Tom Marchese, Noah Schwartz and Vivek Rajkumar were all seated at the same table for a while. Mercier even said he thought it was one of the toughest tables he'd ever seen.
Over 74% of our poll voters said that this was definitely the toughest table ever formed.
The Toughest Table Ever?Antonio Esfandiari was able to come out of the toughest table ever though as the winner of the Big one for One Drop, pocketing nearly $18,000,000 while none of the other players at the table cashed.
The series is not quite over yet, but it would be quite hard to make it on the list of the top five toughest table draws now as there are only a few days remaining in the Main Event. Either way, it's been another amazing year of poker, and with these tough table draws, we were able to capture some of the most exciting moments of history on the felt.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
-
JUL 13
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 47 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!
A Legend Will Rise: Main Event- Day 4
It’s Friday the 13th, 666 players will make the money today, and it’s raining in Las Vegas. Needless to say, day four of the Main Event is off to an ominous start, but don’t worry folks, PokerNews will be here providing updates, despite the pending apocalypse. With only 720 players remaining, all play has consolidated to the Amazon room. Here are some of the images right before the start of play.
Here is Kara Scott interviewing Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst and Liv Boeree along with Maria Ho.
Left to right: Selbst, Ho, BoereeWe spotted Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu with Ali Nejad.
Actor Kevin Pollak is still alive. We'll be sure to keep an eye on him.
Kevin PollakDavid D'Alesandro enters the day as the current chip leader.
Dave "doubledave22" D'AlesandroHere's fan favorite Gavin Smith getting ready for the day.
Gavin SmithMurders Row
Here are images of the feature tables. Each is armed with a killer lineup.
Opponents will have their hands full with TeamPokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst.
Eric Baldwin and Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu figure to butt heads.
Antonio Esfandiari seems relaxed. Well, who wouldn't be after winning the One-Drop? As we passed by the table we overheard Esfandiari sarcastically lamenting his bad luck, "I've run so sh*tty this summer."
We're In The Money!
The money bubble broke before the end of the first level of play this afternoon. Amazingly, there was four all-ins with 667 players remaining (666 paid). We were able to catch some of the sights and sounds of the bubble bursting.
The dealers were instructed to stand during the hand-for-hand process:
Here were some of the short stacks sweating it out:
The bubble didn't seem to affect this player:
Here's a hand of one of the four unfortunate bubble boys:
Kevin Pollak Survives The Bubble
Actor Kevin Pollak has been entertaining his tablemates all series long with jokes, impressions, and even song and dance routines. We caught Pollak singing, “I’m a min casher”, to the beat of the Wheel of Fortune promo song, “I’m a wheel watcher.”
When asked how he felt about surviving the bubble, Pollak replied, “It’s surreal, I’ve been grinding a shortstack forever. I’m sitting at around 200K. I need a double up.”
-
JUL 12
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 46 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!
Early Sights at the Rio
The Rio is still hectic as nearly 1,760 player were rushing to their seats early this morning to get ready to begin day 3 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event. Seen in the hallways this morning was Vanessa Selbst, who is among the chip leaders going in to day 3. Selbst was partaking in an interview with our very own Sarah Grant which we will post later.
Also seen this morning was Kennii Nguyen who has also built a healthy stack of 268,000 going into day 3.
Kennii NguyenNoticeably missing from Nguyen's wardrobe were his classic trademarked jester hats. He had traded in the hats for a set of Mardi Gras beads as well as shades and a full body pillow. It's just not the same around the Rio without seeing Nguyen's hats.
Also seen this morning was at least one member of the Orange Shoe Brigade from yesterday's Fashion Faux Pas section.
One gentleman was making his way down to his table this morning when he was approached by ESPN cameras.
"I'm at the feature table with Negreanu today," the man shouted. "He's got 200k and I'm gonna take it all before the day's over."
Quite a task for the man, but we'll see how he does.
Dealer of the Year
It was announced today that Timothy "EggrollSlimTim" Louie had earned the honors of Dealer of the Year today for his fine performance throughout the series. Louie was one of the dealers this year for the Big One For One Drop tournament.
Tim Louie
We'll catch up with Louie if we can find him and give you some of his thoughts about winning the Dealer of the Year award.
There Will Be A New Champion
We just got word that 2011 Main Event Champion Pius Heinz has hit the rail.
With that announcement, we can confirm that a new champion will be crowned this year. And it could be any one of the nearly 1,700 remaining players.
WSOPoses
There are some poses that are just typical in the World Series of Poker. This is one of them:
"The Hellmuth""The Hellmuth," is a pose pioneered by World Series of Poker Twelve-Time Bracelet Winner Phil Hellmuth. Far too often we see Phil taking this pose in an attempt to hide all tells from his opponent. Also fond of this pose is pro Scott Seiver. The only problem that we have with this gentleman is that he isn't even in a hand! What's he hiding from?
And then we found a second gentleman making a similar attempt to hide all of his tells:
Once again the man isn't even in a hand. What the purpose of hiding 24/7? Maybe he was just hiding from the ESPN camera crews.
Featured
Headlining the two ESPN main feature tables today are poker pros Daniel Negreanu and Antonio Esfandiari. Also, making an appearance in the shot behind Negreanu is the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event Bracelet:
The Main Event Bracelet and Daniel NegreanuNegreanu doesn't seem to be having the best time at the Main Event Feature Table. Here's a tweet we saw regarding his progress:
At least he's still laughing.
Antonio Esfandiari is at the secondary feature table today and he is trying out some interesting seat poses as his buddy Phil Laak was doing yesterday:
He at least seems to be having a better time than Negreanu is.
ESPN has also set up three more feature tables in Murders' Row. Among the players in Murders' Row today are Ben Lamb, Vanessa Selbst, and start of the day chip leader Gaelle Bauman. It should be a real treat to viewers to see play from all three of those players in Murderers Row when coverages airs on ESPN.
-
JUL 11
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 45 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
This morning we saw a lot of familiar faces as players return from Sunday Main Event day 1C to play in day 2C today. Notable sighting are Jen Harman, David 'Doc' Sands, Ben Lamb, Jason Mercier and Prahlad Friedman. Today's chip leader is Randy Haddox with 188,275. He'll be hoping to catch tournament chip leader Gale Baumann, who has 505,800, by the end of the day.
Prahlad Friedman early to his seat
Jason Mercier looking as small as his stackAlso going on today is the final table of the 10k National Championship, which will be taking place on the main stage in the Amazon room at one o'clock. The sportsbook is not taking bets on the action today, but here's a summary of the 8 runners remaining and their respective chip counts.
Seat 1 David “ODB” Baker 281,000
Seat 2 Amanda Musumeci 322,000
Seat 3 Sam Stein 651,000
Seat 4 Huy Nguyen 331,000
Seat 5 Yung Hwang 1,224,000
Seat 6 Nikolas Stone 471,000
Seat 7 Matt Keikoan 957,000
Seat 8 Ryan Eriquezzo 474,000Since there are no odds, we'll give you a chance to pick your favorites here in The Muck.
Read more about the WSOP National Championship Here
-
JUL 10
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 44 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!
A Legend Will Rise: Day 2a/b
It’s day 2a/b of Event 61: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event. Of the 1066 entries, 657 will be returning. Some of the notables resuming play this afternoon include, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst (168,350), Jamie Armstrong (120,440), Faraz Jaka (115,775), Ryan Welch (110,425), and Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer (84,000). You can view a list of today's starting chip counts here.
The field figures to be well rested and refreshed after a day off. We’ll be talking to several of the pros to find out how they spent the free time in preparation for today. We caught up with Danzer in the Pavilion for a quick chat.
How are you feeling heading into day two?
Feeling good. I got about 84k (in chips).
Did you have chance to check out your table draw today?
Yes, there are two players I know, Robert Varkonyi, and Tim Flanders. I’ve played with Tim in London before. The table draw is perfect for me.
You have a healthy stack to start the day, what’s your game plan?
I have a lot of flexibility with my stack and I like how I line up with the other stack sizes at my table. I’m gonna continue putting pressure on my opponents and maintain aggression.
How did you spend your day off?
I went to a BBQ with friends. It was nice to get away from poker for a while.
MLB All-Star Game
Kansas City will host the MLB All-Star game today in Kauffman Stadium. NL starter Matt Cain will square off versus AL starter Justin Verlander. The wining side will gain home field advantage in the World Series. We spotted this gentleman sporting a Kansas City Royal jersey, which begs the question, who’s your pick to win the game?
PokerNews Podcast
This week's Strategy with Kristy podcast features the audio of three PokerStars.tv interviews with PokerStars Team Online members Randy Lew and Mickey Peterson, as well as... more
Phil Ivey and female acquaintance accused of “reading” cards that contained tiny manufacture flaws in huge £7.8 million ($12.1 million) Punto Banco win.
Interesting Topics
PokerNews App
