The Muck
Card Guards
Bernard Lee
George Lind III
Maverick Movie
Off the Felt
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JUL 02
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 36 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
Only 28 players remain in Event 53: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em. Here are the odds of some of the notables courtesy of the Rio Sports book:
Victoria Coren: 7/1
Lee Childs: 14/1
Bryan Piccioli: 6/1
Max Steinberg: 14/1
Age Ravn: 21/1
Getty Mattingsley: 35/1
Matthew Graham: 17/1
Ryan Hughes: 8/1One Drop Table Draws: Day 2
Seat Player Count Table 445 1 Frederic Banjout 7,070,000 2 Chamath Palihapitiya 635,000 3 John Morgan 2,000,000 4 Ilya Bulychev 1,880,000 5 Paul Newey 3,225,000 6 Mike Sexton 5,740,000 7 Vivek Rajkumar 1,270,000 8 --Empty-- N/A Table 446 1 Cary Katz 2,785,000 2 Bill Perkins 885,000 3 Guy Laliberté 6,555,000 4 Phil Galfond 445,000 5 Tom Dwan 4,810,000 6 Daniel Negreanu 470,000 7 Mikhail Smirnov 4,680,000 8 --Empty-- N/A Table 447 1 Tobias Reinkemeier 1,220,000 2 Noah Schwartz 3,120,000 3 Richard Yong 3,430,000 4 Bob Bright 3,880,000 5 Jason Mercier 4,210,000 6 Roland De Wolfe 2,960,000 7 David Einhorn 3,795,000 8 Phil Ruffin 3,750,000 Table 448 1 Gus Hansen 6,800,000 2 Haralabos Voulgaris 2,250,000 3 Brian Rast 10,710,000 4 Philipp Gruissem 3,600,000 5 Bobby Baldwin 4,225,000 6 Rick Salomon 3,285,000 7 Phil Ivey 2,840,000 8 Phil Hellmuth 8,395,000 Table 449 1 Antonio Esfandiari 6,880,000 2 Sam Trickett 6,700,000 3 Dan Shak 3,190,000 4 Tom Marchese 3,740,000 5 Brandon Steven 4,770,000 6 Ben Lamb 5,770,000 7 Talal Shankerchi 2,760,000 8 --Empty-- N/A -
JUL 01
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 35 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
Here are the odds for the final table for Event 51: Ladies No-Limit Hold’em
Angela Moed: 19/2
Freda Lawrence: 14/1
Debbie Pechac: 3/2
Janet Howard: 10/1
Candida Ross-Powers: 8/5
Lesley Amos: 3/1
Yen Dang: 2/1
Rae Rocco: 13/2
Ida Lundholm: 6/1Event 52: 10 Game Mix/Six Handed resumes today with 19 players remaining. Here are the odds for some of the notables in the field:
Bryn Kenny: 13/1
Vanessa Selbst: 7/2
Chris Bjorin: 10/1
Scott Clements: 11/1
Lee Goldman: 12/1One-Drop Countdown
The Amazon Room in the Rio is absolutely electric this afternoon. Throngs of media, fans, and players are all around. A tournament with a $1,000,000 buy-in will tend to do that.
Reactions from One-Drop Players
Player introductions took place in the revamped Thunderdome before the start of the tournament accompanied by drumbeats from Cirque du Soleil performers. The biggest cheers were reserved for Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Antonito Esfandiari, and Gus Hansen.
We caught up few a few players to get their thoughts on the event.
Phil Galfond says, “It’s exciting. It’s great for poker.”
We asked Andrew Robl what his game plan was for the day.
“I looked at my table draw. Poker is poker. I’m gonna try to do what I always do.”
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi had one word to describe today's event.
"Exciting!"
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JUN 30
Erik Audé: From Hollywood To Hell To WSOP
“I wasn’t gonna be anybody’s bitch!”
This isn’t just another story about a Hollywood actor playing in a World Series of Poker event. You may recognize Erik Audé from his roles in Dude, Where’s My Car and Van Wilder, but his most compelling work is in an episode of Locked Up Abroad, except this wasn’t a movie — it was real life. A series on the National Geographic television channel, it takes viewers inside the firsthand accounts of people who have been imprisoned in foreign countries for drug smuggling.
In 2002, Audé was attempting to transport leather goods from Pakistan into the United States. He was stopped and searched in Islamabad International Airport. Unbeknownst to him, the merchandise concealed 3.6 kilos of opium. He was arrested and sentenced to seven years in a Pakistani prison, a virtual death sentence for an American. The episode recounts the torture he endured at the hands of the prison guards, and the violence he faced from fellow prisoners.
We spotted Audé playing in Day 2 of Event #50: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em and spoke to him at break.
How’s the tournament going so far?
I actually woke up late for it yesterday. I was planning on playing the Daily Rio Deep Stack, but it was like 2:40 and at the last second I decided to play the $5K. I got about 270,000 in chips right now [top ten in chips at the time].
Is this your first time playing in the WSOP?
No, I played two years ago and cashed in an event. I’m friends with a lot of the players. I know the Mizrachi brothers and Chino [Rheem]. I hung out with them to celebrate the night Mike won the $50K [$50,000 Poker Players Championship]. I stay with Tony Hachem anytime I’m in Australia. I also know Kristy Gazes really well.
Do you have any upcoming projects?
I just wrapped up shooting for A Killer Of Men. Joe Reitman is in it too.
Let's talk about Locked Up Abroad. They usually have actors re-enact the events, but you actually played yourself.
They were after me for like six years to go on there and tell my story. I actually hated the show. The actors were horrible and I didn’t wanna be lumped in with the rest of the people from past episodes cause they were all guilty. I got them to agree to let me play myself in it. The show kind of made me look like “The Terminator” (a scene is re-enacted where he takes on several prisoners at once in a fight). I mean, when I went into that prison, I wasn’t gonna be anybody’s bitch. I was lucky that most Pakistanis are small people. [Laughs]
How did you get started in poker?
Well, in prison. I read a lot of books, including a Texas hold’em book. I really wanted that to come out in the show, but they had to condense a 13-hour interview into 45 minutes. I became friends with another prisoner who was on death row, his name was Murad and he showed me how to play too. [Audé, overcome with emotion, paused for a moment before continuing]. I’m sorry. He was one of my best friends. I owe so much to him. One night he shared his meal with me. He didn’t tell me it was his last meal before being executed the very next day.
Audé finished 10th in Event #50. Read about his run in the PokerNews Live Reporting Blog and follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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JUN 30
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 34 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!
$1,500 Madness
We caught some pics of the queue for Event #53: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em this morning. This is the biggest queue we've seen yet. After missing out on yesterdays Ladies Event, all the men in Las Vegas seem to be refreshed, reinvigorated and ready to play today - but not one of them thought to register yesterday!
The other possibility is that a lot of people have been slow rolling the poker world and are going to sign up for the One Drop this morning! Lets hope that's the case (even though it's sold out shhhh)! Either way it's one of the all time biggest WSOP queue's, confirmed by Brent Hanks.
The Last Satellite
All roads lead here, the final satellite for Event #55: $1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop - No-Limit Hold'em. Among all the hopefuls and super satellite luck boxes are some big name pros, all desperate to play in the biggest ever World Series Of Poker Event. Below we can see Brian 'Stinger' Hastings, who wanted to buy in but didn't register in time, Justin Bonomo, who actually has his name down to provide commentary on the event along side Olivier Busquet, and Issac 'ike' Haxton.
For some players the grind never ends. Jason Mercier and Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier are on the official On Drop list already and have paid their money, but have still entered the 25K Satellite today. Why? They can still win the million! It's just another big event to these guys!
We'll keep you posted on how the Satellite unfolds.
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JUN 30
What Would You Do With a One Drop Buy-In?
On Sunday, the World Series of Poker will host the $1 Million Big One for One Drop — the largest buy-in poker tournament in history. To put that into perspective, the first Main Event winner to earn $1 million was Brad Daugherty, who won in 1991. Prior to that year, the first-place prize was $895,000 or less, and the first six Main Events had a combined top prize of only $830,000.
We still ogle at six-figure buy-in events — although they’re starting to lose their luster — but seven-figures is something else. The Big One is going to be very special, and Sunday can’t come soon enough, but the buy-in got us to thinking: What else could we buy with a million dollars?
We’d still set aside $111,111 for charity, but with $888,889 of disposable income, we can assure you that we’d have a blast.
Two Courtside Seats to see the New York Knicks ($6,000)
If you don’t like the Knicks, then insert your favorite basketball team. Don’t like basketball? Then insert whatever team you like. All-in-all there’s nothing like a front row ticket to a professional sporting event, and Madison Square Garden is “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” It’s also the Mecca of basketball, and if you pick a Knicks/Heat game or a Knicks/Laker game, the crowd is going to be absolutely bonkers — even if it’s a regular season game. You will also have a chance to chill with poker player Dan Shak and Spike Lee, who both sit courtside for dozens of Knicks games each year.
Two Seats at the 50-Yard Line for the Super Bowl ($11,600)
If the Knicks tickets don’t entice you, then this has to pique your interest. The Super Bowl is the most-watched event in American sports, and sitting at the 50-yard line (which is the center of the field for all of you fútbol fans) would be a remarkable experience. Super Bowl weekend is an event in and of itself with all of the parties and expos, and this year the game is in New Orleans — a great party city. If you want to bring two more friends, then double the price and bring them along. After all, when you have $888,889, what’s the difference between $11,600 and $23,200?
Ten Main Event Buy-Ins ($100,000)
This list has to have something related to poker, right? The Main Event is the softest $10,000 buy-in event each year — every professional player will tell you that. The upside of winning the event is also unmatched, because the winner not only takes home anywhere from eight to nine million dollars, he or she is also the ambassador for poker, and will forever be remembered as a world champion. Personally, I would gladly take on the role of ambassador for this game, and the title “world champion” sounds pretty sweet.
The worst-case scenario is that I brick all 10 events, and attribute my losses to #JustBadLuck.
A replica of the Ghostbusters car ($80,000)
Back in May, The Sun reported that Paul Harbourne, a 49-year old “geek” from England, created an exact replica of “Ecto 1” — the car from Ghostbusters. Harbourne was forced to look worldwide for the perfect 1959 Cadillac to work on, and spent more than £50,000 on tools, lights, sirens, paint and more. Who needs a Lamborghini, or some kind of fancy, push-to-start whip when you have the car from Ghostbusters? This is absolutely a must-have, and if I have to pay more than the £50,000 Harbourne spent to make it, I will.
Full Tilt Poker (About $3.50)
What? Too soon?
Two 90” LED TVs ($22,000)
Sharp and Mitsubishi have recently debuted 90-inch LED televisions — the biggest in the world — but Sharp’s version comes with a few more amenities, including 3D technology, web browsing, Skype capability, and built-in WiFi. Why two, you ask? Because there are always multiple things to watch on television, and DVR doesn’t apply to live events — aka sports. So, when your significant other wants to watch something, and you want to watch something else, you can do so peacefully. When someone wants to play video games while the other one watches television, it all works out. And on Sundays, when there’s fifteen NFL games on TV, you can catch nearly every play using two TVs and the very popular Redzone Channel.
100 pairs of shoes ($15,000)
The average pair of Nike iD shoes costs $150, so multiply that by 100, and you have $15,000. Shoes are awesome, and you can tell a lot about a person by what kind of shoes they tend to wear. Personally, I like to wear colorful shoes that stand out, but there are also days where I can throw on a casual pair of kicks to keep comfortable. I could easily wear a new pair of shoes each day, making 100 a good number, because I could wear a pair once every three months. If you don’t like shoes, spend this money on some other kind of clothing: jackets, hoodies, purses, bags, funny t-shirts, or jewelry.
But please, for the love of Mike Sexton, don’t buy basketball shorts and flip flops.
A house in Valencia, CA ($550,000)
Las Vegas is a little daunting, but if I were to buy a house, I would at least buy one close enough that I could come whenever I want. Likewise, I’d prefer to stay on the West Coast because it’s the best coast (see what I did there). Valencia, California, is 40 minutes north of Los Angeles, which means it’s nice and quiet, and it’s also going to be less expensive. A quick Google search produced dozens of homes in our price-range, and it’s not like we’re trying to ball out and buy a mansion — we can do that when we win the Main Event using one or more of our ten buy-ins. This would obviously be our biggest purchase using the budget, but it’s also a good investment because the value of a home (in theory) should increase.
Two giant Ferguson Hill speakers ($20,216.25)
WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THESE GIANT SPEAKERS!!
Condo in Canada for Online Poker ($1,900/mo)
Life in America is tough without PokerStars, so finding a place to live outside of the country is a must. Europe and Asia are too far — and the time zone difference is too large — but Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is a perfect spot. It’s close, it’s hip, and you can get by with just English. In truth, this was a toss up between Toronto and Montreal, but Montreal ultimately won because they have poutine, and poutine is delicious.
A donation to One Drop ($111,111)
Guy Laliberté deserves a ton of credit for heading the One Drop Foundation, and doing everything he can to provide safe, clean water to those in need. Despite being the most basic and most accessible resource in most first-world countries, clean water is a treasure in countless third-world nations, and something needs to be done about it. Most of us will see the Big One for One Drop as a sick event where cold-blooded poker players and rich businessmen battle for millions of dollars, but at the end of the day, it’s a great way to raise (at least) $5,333,328 for those in need.
That’s how I’d spend my million dollars – how about you?
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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JUN 30
First Five with First-Time World Series of Poker Bracelet Winner Greg Hobson
We caught up with Greg “DuckU” Hobson moments after winning his first WSOP bracelet. For winning Event #49: $1,500 Ante-Only No-Limit Hold'em, Hobson will take home $256,691 and the bracelet. He may not be a household name in the live poker world, but online he is known by the moniker "DuckU" and is legendary — amassing over $4.5 million in online tournament cashes.
What was your first thought when you won?
Really surreal that it actually happened.
Who’s the first person you’re going to call?
My wife. I actually just called to tell her.
What’s the first thing you’re going to do to celebrate?
I’ll go out for a few beers with my friends.
Who was the first person to congratulate you?
My friend over here. [Hobson pointed to his friend Andres Pereyra].
What was the first turning point at the final table?
I had
and won a flip against 
versus Eugene Du Plessis. I had opened a few pots leading up to that hand and had to fold, so they may have thought I was steaming a bit that third time.Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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JUN 29
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 33 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
It might be ladies day in the Rio, but there is still one final table going on; Event #49: $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em. The table is full of young wizards, so it is still anyone's game. Chip leader Eugene Du Plessis is going at 1/1 odds, but the last time we saw someone at 1/1 they shipped it. Also at the final table is Mike "Timex" McDonald going at 10/1. Here's the full odds sheet:
Seth Davies: 5/2
Sameer Aljanedi: 12/1
Justin Schwartz: 8/1
Eugene Du Plessis: 1/1
Mike McDonald: 10/1
Greg Hobson: 5/2
Mike Sowers: 3/2
John Hays: 9/1
Harrison Gimbel: 6/1The final table should be an exciting one for this brand new format, so make sure you keep your eyes on the live reporting blog.
It's Ladies Day At The Rio
Today is the day of Event #51: $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship. In the field, PokerNews has four of it's very own.
First up, we have our Director of Strategic Development, Danielle Barille. Danielle can often be found helping out with the PokerNews interns, working on the PokerNews podcast, and doing other odd jobs around the office. We've caught he playing $2/$5 No-Limit here at the Rio a few times too, so she is no fish and shouldn't be taken lightly at the poker table. Danielle also lives in a house full of poker players, including bracelet winner Brent Hanks, so we assume that she is well versed in the game.
Danielle BarilleNext up is PokerNews Hostess Sarah Grant. We hear that in her spare time, Sarah loves spending time in Maridu Mayrinck's bed with fellow poker players Lauren Kling and Xuan Liu. Sarah is a bit of an action junkie, and loves to see flops. Her favorite players include Gavin Smith and Layne Flack. She may be pretty, but Sarah is a fierce competitor and expected to build up a huge stack, or go home early.
Sarah GrantOn third we have the crowd favorite, Kristy Arnett. Kristy is well known for her excellent blogging skills, and for helping create PokerNews' brand new series, "The Straddle." In her spare time, Kristy plays a lot of cash games, she makes her own youtube videos, and she has been known to even enter fitness competitions. She already has one cash this year in Event 9: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Re-Entry and she hopes to make it two today.
Kristy ArnettLast but not least is Australian native Lynn Gilmartin. Gilmartin is known to be dating Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen, and we're sure he's given her some tips on lasting through a tough field. She is known to be a health and fitness guru as well as a world traveler. She produces multiple blogs for PokerNews on the subjects. Lynn has a passion for animals, and is known to be a animal right activist, but at the table, we hear that she is a bit of an animalher self, so watch out ladies.
Lynn GilmartinHere at the PokerNews office we've been making last longer bets for which lady we think will last the longest. Now is your chance to let us know what you think in the poll below.
Some Of These Things Are Not Like The Others
Maybe you didn't realize that today was a ladies event. Maybe you're only in Vegas for a few days and this was the only event you could afford to buy into. Maybe you lost a prop bet. Maybe you're foreign and you don't understand what the word “Ladies” means. Maybe you even thought you could pick up chicks.
Regardless of the excuse, we have seen nine men so far in the Ladies Championship. Some of them were not ashamed. Some came in full drag.
Some of them tried to hide from us:
"You're for sure gonna be on PokerNews," one of the ladies at the table joked.
Some of them though, seemed as if they were proud to be jerk. They sat with their heads held high, and were chatting back and forth with the ladies at their table.
And then we have this jerk who's been playing the ladies event every year since 2010.
Either way, most of the ladies who have a man at their table seem to be being great sports about it. There is the occasional needle, of course. The ladies, who are a classier bunch, seem to have the mentality that if they want to punish these jerks, than they can do it on the felt, with chips and cards.
It's stupid, it's immature, and it's pointless. But guys are going to play the ladies event every year, and they all have their own reasons for it.
CoCo in for One Drop?
We saw some hilarious joke tweets between Conan O'Brien and Lon McEachern this morning regarding One Drop. In case you missed there, here they are:
Hey, is it too late to stake me in the World Series of Poker? It’s $10,000, and I’ll lose, but I’ll wear a windbreaker with your name on it.
June 29 2012Follow@ConanOBrien How about entering the $1,000,000 buy-in event Sunday Co-Co? Thats worth a sponsored windbreaker and thong
June 29 2012FollowCoCo in a Lon McEachern thong? We just can't get the image out of our mind.
Zoot Suit Friday
The floormen in the Amazon are taking part in a special tradition for this year's ladies event. All members of the floor are wearing 1920's zoot suits and pink ties, some equipped with chains, others with boutonnieres and hats. Here's a few pictures of the friendly floormen.
Makes us here at PokerNews wish that we had a bit nicer attire.
Can You See With Those Things On: Day 33
We don't really know if these constitute as glasses, but we saw this woman playing in the ladies event, and we couldn't resist taking a picture to share with the readers.
The Butterfly QueenSurely, it must be difficult to see with the mask on, but it's truly one of the most unique pieces of attire that we've seen here at the world series of poker so far. Surely this is a trend that will pick up here in America very soon.
One Drop Sold Out
That's it folks. Seats for The Big One For One Drop $1,000,000 buy-in have sold out. We got wind of this thanks to a tweet from Brian Hastings:
Onedrop sold out. Thanks for everyone who was gonna buy action. Time to bink the satellite!
June 29 2012FollowJamie Gold also put in a tweet about the event's sales:
Huge congratulations to Guy @ONEDROPdotorg and @WSOP for a sold out event. History making will bring awareness #big1drop
June 29 2012FollowAnd we also made sure to confirm with the official One Drop twitter page:
RT @allinfor1drop: Chair of ONEDROP and Founder of @Cirque just confirmed that #big1drop is sold out- check this out on Sunday
June 29 2012FollowGood luck to all the entrants, it should be a doozy. Luckily, there is still time to get into the Rio's $25,000 Satellite which will be taking place this Saturday for the last remaining One Drop seat. We'll be sure to post an official list of registrants once we have them.
What A Rail
On the rail of Event #49: $1,500 Antes Only No-Limit Hold'em, we found two friends of Seth Davies. The first one was carrying a giant cardboard cut out of Davies' head.
The second was carrying a giant cardboard cutout of Nick Davies, Seth's brother. Nick couldn't make it to the event today, so their friends wanted to show their support by brining a giant cardboard cut out of Seth's brother.
Apparently, all four gentleman have been friends for a very long time and have helped to teach each other how to play poker, lived with each other in Las Vegas, and more. It's refreshing to see such a kind and supportive rail.
On the other side of the rail, Mike Watson had a special photo for Mike "Timex" McDonald.
"Go Timex!"While it may not be as large of a gesture as a huge cardboard head, support is always nice.
Inspirational Tales From the World Series of Poker: Gertrude Schimmel
Today's inspirational tale is that of Gertrude Schimmel. Schimmel is 94 years old and has been playing poker for over 50 years. She doesn't have the best eyesight, or hearing, but she can still play the game better than most.
Getrude SchimmelSchimmel is a retired deputy chief inspector of the New York Police Department who used to play at the WSOP regularly. She's cashed five times in the ladies event in the past, including final tabling in 1998 when she finished fourth.
Her niece is here assisting Schimmel a bit with reading the board and following the action. She told us how Schimmel hadn't played at the WSOP in a while, but this year had an idea she wanted to come back again and give it another go.
She also explained how her best game is seven-card stud — which used to be the game here in the ladies event up until 2000. But Schimmel seems to be holding her own just fine thus far in our no-limit hold'em tournament.
It's Man Time
We've given a lot of attention and love to the ladies of today, but there is something we almost overlooked, and no, one of our guys isn't playing the ladies event.
Playing in Event #52: $2,500 10-game mix six handed is one of our very own PokerNews Live Reporters, Remko "HappyFreaked" Rinkema.
Remko "HappyFreaked" RinkemaWith all the buzz going over the ladies today, we wanted to make sure Rinkema didn't get overlooked. He represents the fifth member of the PokerNews cast playing in a World Series of Poker event today. We'll be sure to keep an eye on his progress as he makes his way through a stacked field. Rinkema is no fish, he has over $30,000 in live tournament earnings including a final table in the Estrellas Poker Tour Madrid Main Event where he took 4th.
Ten Cashes And Counting
Konstantin PuchkovIt was announced today in the Amazon room that Konstantin Puchkov, from Russia, earned his tenth cash this series, tying a record set by fellow countryman Nikolay Evadakov. Evadakov passed away on February 6th at the age of 47.
Ante Up: Bryan Slick
Bryan SlickWe caught up with Bryan Slick, tournament manager for PokerStars. Slick actually invented the Ante-Only No-Limit Hold’em tournament, which is making its WSOP debut this year. We spoke to him to find out the inspiration for the game.
When did you come up with the idea?
Late 07 early 08 I was trying to think of something new and fresh that could be applied to No-Limit Hold’em. I cut my teeth as a stud player, so the forced action of the antes appealed to me. We thought it was really interesting and finally after it sitting on the shelf for a while it made its debut on April 1st 2008 as part of our April Fools joke on PokerStars.
How does it feel to see the Ante-Only tournament make its WSOP debut?
I wish I was sitting right there (pointing over to Greg “DuckU” Hobson who was getting pictures taken of his win in the Ante-Only tournament). It’s a great feeling. I played in the event as well and made a deep run. I busted in 140th place. After we added the Ante-Only tournament to the PokerStars S.C.O.O.P lineup it got great reviews from the players. (Team PokerStars Pro) Daniel Negreanu played it and loved it. He tweeted about it to his millions of followers.
Have you developed any strategies for the game?
Slick laughed and said, “I may have invented the game but I’m by no means an expert in it.”
Other players have been raving about the tournament as well so chances are it will be a mainstay for years to come.
Ladies Event Update
If you’ve been keeping up with today’s blog then you know that four of PokerNews’ own played in today’s Event 51: $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship. Unfortunately, Danielle Barille, Lynn Gilmartin, and Kristy Arnett have been knocked out but PokerNews hostess Sarah Grant is still alive.
Sarah GrantWe caught up with Grant at break.
What’s your plan heading in after break?
Well, I have about 20 big blinds, so I know I don’t have many options right now. I can’t really open many pots or call any raises really. I will say this, at my table the ladies have been really scared to call short stack shoves, so I’m gonna look for spots to get it in and chip up.
There’s 216 ladies left in the tournament and 117 spots pay. We’ll be sure to keep tabs on Grant and report any further developments.
Sneak Peak At One-Drop
The much talked about Event 55: $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop starts this Sunday. Some of the notables scheduled to play include Tom Dwan, Michael Mizrachi, Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier, Tom Marchese, and Phil Ivey.
The Rio staff has been in the process of giving the Amazon a makeover in anticipation of the $1 million dollar buy-in tournament.
Make sure to tune in to PokerNews for complete coverage of the event.
Who Wore It Better?
It’s not uncommon to see men with shaved heads. Some do it for fashion others simply choose to tap out of the fight against male pattern baldness. We spotted three notables in today’s Event 52: $2,500 10-Game Mix - Six-Handed
Scott Fischman
Greg Mueller
Joe TehanFashion Run Down
A WSOP Ladies event wouldn’t be complete without a fashion run down. Here’s some of the more interesting wardrobe choices we came across today.
Day 1 Of Ladies Event Concludes
Only 117 are left in Event 51: $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship. Day two will start on Saturday. Some of the notables still remaining include, J.J. Liu, Erica Schoenberg, Annie LePage, Leo Margets, and last not but not least, our very own Sarah Grant.
Grant is looking forward to day two.
“I’m so excited,” exclaimed Grant. “It’s my first WSOP event ever. I never played anything over $250. I’m so happy. I paid it myself too (the $1,000 entry fee).”
In addition to this being Grant’s first WSOP event, it’s also her first WSOP cash. We’ll be keeping tabs on Grant on day two.
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 28
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 32 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
The odds are in, and if you're a Michael Mizrachi fan the news is not good. In Event #45: $50,000 Poker Players Championship, Mizrachi is going off at 1/1 odds. The worst we've seen so far for any player. However, if you're a Bruno Fitoussi supporter, you can get your man going off at 30/1 odds. Also at the final table is Andy Bloch, who is making his second $50,000 Poker Players Championship final table. Bloch is among the chip leaders and is going for 3/2 at the Rio Sportsbook. Here is the full list:
Bill Chen:9/2
Luke Schwartz: 4/1
Andy Bloch: 3/2
Stephen Chidwick: 3/1
Michael Mizrachi: 1/1
Chris Klodnicki: 7/4
Bruno Fitoussi: 30/1
Roland Israelashvili: 10/1There are two other events playing down to the finish today, the first is Event #47: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better. Chip leader Charalampos Lappas is going at 3/2 odds. Also in the mix is Timothy Finne, who is making his second final table table appearance. Finne is going at 4/1 odds and Steven Loube who is going at 3/2 odds. Here is the full list:
Steven Loube: 3/2
Paul Taylor: 12/1
Timothy Finne: 4/1
Cameron McKinley: 3/1
Sonu Sharma: 7/1
Charalampos Lappas: 3/2
Viatcheslav Ortynskiy: 50/1
Paul Ewen: 9/1
Roch Cousineu: 7/2
Kyle Carlston: 15/2The other event finishing up today is Event #48: $3,000 Limit Hold'em. Still in the running is Chad Brown, going at 7/1, Jonathan Duhamel, going at 12/1, and Justin Bonomo, going at 15/1, all good bets for great players. Here's the full list:
Paul Berende: 5/2
Kenny Hsiung: 7/2
John Virtue: 4/1
Cary Marshall: 5/1
Mitchell Davis: 13/2
Jonathan Cohen: 8/1
Chad Brown: 7/1
Matthew Woodward: 11/1
Stephen Hung: 11/1
John Myung: 12/1
Robert Hwang: 12/1
Jonathan Duhamel: 12/1
David Longood: 14/1
Dwyte Pilgrim: 17/1
Justin Bonomo: 15/1
Brandon Young: 20/1
Baothang Nguyen: 23/1
Joseph Kuether: 35/1
Jason Manger: 45/1
Vladimir Shchmelev : 50/1The most ridiculous bet of the day goes to Vladimir Shchmelev who is going at 50/1. He still has about 4 big bets left, and in poker, a game where anything can happen, you cannot count him out just yet. If Shchmelev can get lucky and run good, then he has a good shot at winning the event. There is still a few minutes to hop on over to the Rio sportsbook, so if you want to place bets, but you may have to run. Get there fast and place your bets now!
Eastgate in the House
Today is the first time we've seen 2008 Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate. Eastgate is at a table with Layne Flack and Allen Kessler in Event #50: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em.
Peter 'Icegate' EastgateFlack and Eastgate have an interesting table dynamic going on right now. When we walked by the table, it sounded as if Flack was needling Eastgate about his stint on High Stakes Poker.
"So you quit High Stakes Poker yeah?" Flack asked. "Didn't seem like you we're doing that well. How much did you lose?"
"Only $75,000," Eastgate responded.
"Only $75,000? That's not that much. It helps when the deck just hits you in the face," Flack said.
We'll try to catch up with Eastgate when we see him and ask him what life outside of poker has been like.
No Wonder He's 1/1
On one of the first hands of the day, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi scooped a huge pot and eliminated Bill Chen and Bruno Fitoussi. No wonder his odds in the sportsbook are 1/1.
The $50k PPC, in the Thunderdome of the Amazon roomWe took a little stroll through the Amazon room to take a look at the rail. Notables watching the final table included Allen Cunningham, who left to register for an event.
The rail is notably smaller than when Phil Ivey made his final table, but there is still only a few empty seats left in the stands.
The rail for the $50k PPCIt's still early though, and there are 6 players remaining, so the rail may grow even larger, and have a more concentrated fan base once some players are eliminated.
Having "The Grinder" once again in a position to win the $50k Poker Players Championship prompts one question though: If he wins again, does he get his name on the trophy twice?
The Ladies of Event #50: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Since Event #51: $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship is coming up tomorrow, we decided to tease the event a little bit with a few of the women who are currently playing in Event #50.
First up we saw Ebony Kenney. Kenney was originally a model before she began playing poker, but has made a name for her self with several live cashes totaling over $100,000.
Ebony KenneyNext we saw Team PokerStars Pro Ana Marquez. Marquez has several cashes from the European Poker Tour, as well as multiple World Series of Poker cashes, including last year's Ladies Event. In total, she has nearly $250,000 in live tournament earnings.
Ana MarquezWe also found Leo Margets in the field. Margets is well known for her deep run in the Main Event in 2009 where she finished in 27th place. In total, her live tournament earnings are over $700,000.
Leo MargetsThen, all at once we found Jennifer Tilly, Xuan Liu, and Lauren Kling all at the same table. Tilly already has a World Series of Poker Bracelet from a ladies event. In 2005, Tilly won the ladies event and pocketed $158,335 for her victory. Tilly is more well known for her acting career, where she stared in such films as Chucky's Bride. Tilly's poker prowess shouldn't be over looked though as she has nearly $700,000 in tournament earnings.
Jennifer TillyXuan Liu is the number one earner that we saw in the Event #50 field today, thanks in part to her two final tables at the EPT. Liu aslo has a final table at this year's World Series of Poker, where she finished 6th in Event #4: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better, and pocketed $29,985. Liu's live tournament earnings total more than $1.2 million and she truly is a force to be reckoned with.
Xuan LiuLauren Kling is another beastly poker player in the field today. She has racked up several cashes in this year's World Series of Poker, cashing in four separate $1,500 events. In total, she has cashed for over $25,000 at this year's series alone. We had an interview with Kling a few weeks back where she discussed the success of women at this year's World Series of Poker. Kling has a total of $223,382 in live tournament earnings over her career.
Lauren KlingWhen you add it all up, there's nearly $3.5 million in live tournament earnings between these women alone. It looks as if this year's ladies event will shape up to be a tough one. Also playing in the event are PokerNews' very own Kristy Arnett , Danielle Barille, and Lynn Gilmartin. Arnett already has one cash this series, and hopes to make it two tomorrow. Stay tuned, and we'll update you with more and more as we find out who's going to play the ladies event, and who is going to choose to sit out.
Gator Boots and the Pimped Out Gucci Suits
These shoes belong to Joe Gualtieri. Gualtieri recently finished 6th in Event #46: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em for $110,775. It's not uncommon to wonder what people buy when they win that much money, for Gualtieri, we saw something that we didn't see when he was playing in Event #46. A pair of pimped out gator boots.
We did a little research, and for an authentic pair of gator boots, it would run you somewhere between $2,300 and $7,000 for a higher end pair. Today, Gualtieri is using a little more of his profits to play in Event #50: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em. Maybe if he wins this one, he can get that pimped out Gucci suit.
Gavin Smith's Drink of Choice
Yesterday, we asked readers what they thought Gavin Smith's drink of choice was for the day. Today we're back to bring you the answer.
It has vodka:
It has grapefruit:
That's right. It's a Greyhound. If you guessed right, like nearly 60% of the readers did, then good for you! We'll be sure to bring you more fun polls and trivia games as the series goes on.
The Big One
With July 1st fast approaching, all the talk is of the 1,000,000 buy-in Event #55: The Big One for One Drop - No-Limit Hold'em. Jason Mercier tweeted something interesting today - a picture of himself handing over the one million in cash at the registration in the Rio! Check it out!
Lightning Strikes Twice
While a 50k buy-in might pale in comparison to next weeks One Drop, The 50k Players Championship is a big deal and Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi has won his second in three years.
Watching on from the rail for The Grinders victory was his twin brother Eric, his younger brother Donnie and his older brother Robert, who also played in the 50k event.
The 1.45 Million win moves The Grinder up to fourth in the all time money winners list, leap frogging Phil Hellmuth in the process. The only people still ahead of him are Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Erik Seidel.
We'll see in the next few days if this win will inspire Michael Mizrachi to become the 46th player to register for Million Dollar The One Drop...
Update...
Minutes after we posted the last piece, we see this on twitter...
Mizrachi's in the One Drop, and we're at 46... Who will be next? We'll keep you updated.
Cheong In Twenty Years?
While doing our rounds through the brasilia room, scoping out all the big name pros who turned out for Event #50: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em, we overheard some rail bird talk next to Joseph Cheong and Scotty Nguyen's table. The railbirds were discussing the dynamic between Cheong and Nguyen, and saying that "Scotty is Cheong in twenty years time".
While that might be taking it a bit far, the two players will certainly be aware of each other and Scotty we're sure would rather not have an experienced young pro like Choeng on his left. We're watching out for the interesting old school/new school clash going on, but all the rail want to see is Choeng donning some bling and ordering a few brewskis before the night is up.
Nothing but Wizards
It seems that Randy 'NanoNoko' Lew's prediction of the Final Table of Event #49: $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em having a higher proportion of great players than the other tournaments is coming true. We saw this tweet from Galen Hall:
And snapped some pics of the biggest name players at the table this afternoon.
Mike 'Timex' McDonald
Erick 'Edog' Lindgren
Justin 'stealthmunk' SchwartzAnte Up: With Timex
We caught up with Mike 'Timex' McDonald, shown above, on his break from Event #49: $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em to ask him how he liked the ante only structure.
"It's honestly the most fun I think I've ever had playing live poker. I'm not just saying that because I'm going so deep. There have been tournaments that I've won but I've enjoyed this one way more. It just makes for interesting poker, and new situations."
"Now, as we start to go short handed and approach the final table, I honestly don't know what the strategy should be. At 9 handed I had some idea, and I was just limping a lot and trying to make more hands and then bluff people when I thought it might work."
Timex has Brian 'Stinger' Hastings on his rail after he busted Event #50: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em.
Busto 88<TT, time to crack a few beers and watch @MikeMcDonald89 FT the ante only! #silverlining
June 28 2012FollowWe'll keep you updated on the atmosphere as the event narrows down to a final 9 before culminating tomorrow.
How To Relax
One aspect of being a poker player that is more important than people think is knowing how to relax and wind down. Pius Heinz knows exactly how to do this, and after a full 12 hours at the tables he's now having a few beers to finish off the day.
Was down to 8k at 300/600 started drinking beer and im up to 35k 30 min later #notacoincidence
June 28 2012FollowDoing it wrong is Justin 'Stealthmunk' Schwartz who is firing up some high stakes sit'n'go's online to wind down after his two days straight of poker...
Lots of heroes at the FT from a super soft field. Short day at the office so firing up a 525 sng to stay sharp. I Hate posting blinds tho.
June 28 2012FollowOutfit Of The Day: Day 32
Check out the outfit Dwight Pilgrim was wearing today at the Final Table for Event #48: $3,000 Limit Hold'em, looking for all the world like a middle eastern prince.
The Big One: Part 2
Tom Marchese has just booked his place in Event #55: $1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop - No-Limit Hold'em. He tweeted this picture of his buy-in - looks noticeably less than what Jason Mercier tweeted earlier though... double check that brick please!!
The One Drop: Cash Game Edition
Fittingly, there appears to be a huge cash game going on in Aria tonight. Check out this tweet from Frank Kassela.
Million dollar buy-in No Limit Holdem game @ariapoker at $2k/$4kblinds with $8k straddle and theres a list long enough to start 2nd game WTF
June 29 2012FollowNo wonder the Rio is so quiet tonight! We'll make sure to catch up with Kassela tomorrow and get the scoop! Very likely that this new influx of action is caused by the arrival of the one and only Tom 'durrrrr' Dwan, but we can't say for sure...
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 27
2012 World Series of Poker: Fifty Shades of Grey
There has been a lot of talk about Bloutfits, Whioutfits, and Redoutfits, but we've all let the Groutfits slip under the radar over the past few days.
That's why it was to our surprise that we found not one, not two, but four Groutfits playing in the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship. Among them were Gus Hansen, Nick Schulman, and Viktor "Isildur1" Blom. We've decided to take a walk back through memory lane and give grades to all the past, and present Groutfits starting with our very first sighting, Tom Marchese.
Tom Marchese
Tom MarcheseMarchese gains extra points for having matching grey headphones, because if you're going to go all out, you might as well go all the way. Unfortunately for Marchese, he also lost some points for having black pant zippers. Come on buddy, you gotta do better than that if you're gonna go all gray.
Final Grade: B-
Gus Hansen
Gus HansenNext up is Gus Hansen, who gets extra points for taking a nap on the floor the other day. We've got to give Hansen even more credit for having such a stylish nylon hood, and for being brave enough to wear track pants into the Rio. But we have to take a few points away for having a big green patch on the back of his sweater taking away that authentic Groutfit look.
Final Grade: A-
Viktor Blom
Viktor BlomUp next is Viktor Blom, who was almost disqualified for his stone washed jeans, but they were dark enough so that we had to give him credit. That being said, this isn't the first time Blom's been dinked for fashion no-nos, we caught him playing in the $10,000 Heads-up Event with his pants basically down around his ankles. We'll give him some extra points for finding a belt today.
Final Grade: C+
Bryn Kenney
Bryn KenneyWe also found Bryn Kenney wearing one of the most stylish Groutfits that we've seen so far this series. Kenny gets massive crowd appeal for being able to pull off inside out cutoff sweats. How often do you see that happen? He loses a few points for the baby blue slippers, but we'll cut him some slack and give him the benefit of the doubt.
Final Grade: A
Nick Schulman
Nick SchulmanNick Schulman gets style points for being extra comfy at the table. Schulman, who looks like he might be about ready to take a Gus Hansen style nap at the table, loses a lot of points for wearing two different shades of grey. Come on man, if you're going to wear grey on grey, you can at least wear the same shade of grey.
Final Grade: D-
Phil Ivey
Phil IveyFinally, we have the man himself, Phil Ivey, and we'd be crazy to give him any other grade.
Final Grade: A+
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JUN 27
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 31 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
It’s been an action packed few days, but a winner must be decided in Event #46: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em. There are a lot of big name pros thrown in with the budding amateurs in what promises to be an exciting conclusion to the week here at the Rio. The odds are in, let’s have a look.
Daniel Chambelain 20/1
Joshua Hillock 11/1
Franis Rusnak 15/1
Konstantin Puchkov 11/1
He Huang 30/1
Philip Meulyzer 30/1
Bradley Lipsey 14/1
Robert Castoire 14/1
Stephen Reynolds 10/1
Willian Reynolds 5/1
Joseph Gualtieri 25/1
William Rogers 20/1
Jeremy Quehen 19/2
Mark Schmid 25/1
Nicholas Augustino 17/1
Fernando Brito 12/1
Larry Duplantis 26/1
Yordan Jeliazkov 11/1
Joey Weissman 4/1
Vanessa Selbst 7/1
Jimmy Fradettedufour 7/1
Joshua Pedraza 40/1
Adria Balaguer 20/1
Fabrizio Gonzalez 25/1
Michael Gagliano 9/2Notables are Vanessa Selbst @ 7/1, going for her 2nd bracelet, and William Reynolds @ 5/1. Both have a lot of chips and are very experienced at this level. We'll also keep an eye on Larry Duplantis, who we wrote about yesterday. Larry has a physical disability which means a card reader is necessary to help him, and if he were to fight his way to the final table here it would be one of the most inspirational stories ever to come out of the World Series Of Poker.
Betting continues until 12:55 at the Rio sportsbook, so still time for flutter!
Ante Up!
Check out these tweets from pro's playing the brand new Event #49: $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em. Players seems to think that policing the format will be messy, but some also seem to be enjoying it after playing the first few hands.
3rd time they have gone over the rules of the ante only tourney in first 10 mins. I'm not entirely sure of them myself. #fuckitwelldoitlive
June 27 2012FollowWe'll catch up with some pros on break and see how they like the tournament after two full levels! We'll also try get the low-down on the strategy for such an event - hopefully Randy 'NanoNoko' Lew will have one worked out for us then!
New tournament today the $1500 ante only. We all ante up preflop and sb acts first, Will make a strategy as I go. #willbeinteresting
June 27 2012FollowChill Atmosphere
Chance Kornuth And Daniel Negreanu Share A JokeWe can tell that the players are having more fun than usual by the hum of conversation around the Brasilia room. Not since the seniors event have we seen such a social element to the game, with players excited to try something different and enjoying the new challenge.
Having more fun in this Ante Only WSOP event than I have all series. What an incredibly cool event! Love it.
June 27 2012FollowPlayers better enjoy it while they can. With several players already busted a bit into the first level, this one's going to go fast...
Pink Is The New Black
The Muck Paparazzi managed to snap this picture without this guys knowledge, that doesn't happen too often these days! The day 2 players are always a bit more focused on their cards and less focused on our PokerNews hero and the blog of shame. Anyway, we snapped a pic of this guy in all pink in Event #47: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better and all pink outfits are always worth a post in The Muck!
Ante Up: Part 2
Olivier Busquet and Mickey Petersen in Event #49As promised, we spoke to several pros playing in today's Event #49: $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em on their break to try find out how they're enjoying this new event, and how they're adapting their play.
Mickey "MementMori" Petersen told us he loved the format.
"Yeah it's a fun format. Obviously everyone is used to playing really standard no-limit hold'em tournaments, there's been 20 of them or something so far, so everyone is used to the standard tournaments and this makes people think. Anything that makes people think is more fun, and can be profitable"
"As far as specific strategy adjustments goes, I think I've been limping more. You only need to put in one chip to see a flop with all these chips. You can limp weak hands and strong hands and balance it a bit like that. People also are trying to adjust their open size, so far some people make it three times the big blind and some people make it seven times the big blind. Everyone's just figuring it out and people are figuring it out different. People were arguing on my table about the correct" Said Petersen, laughing.
The ever-friendly Olivier Busquet had similar sentiments, and some more interesting strategy insight.
"I love it. It's obviously a super-turbo format, there's so much more money in the pot so early on so bets get big, quick. It's a slight change from the normal tournaments, which can get repetitive. Anything that puts people out of their comfort zone is good".
"There are some strategy adjustments I've considered. I think the Button becomes even more powerful in this format. I'll play pretty liberally on the button, limping a lot. It's just powerful because you can control the pot. You just look at how people adjust, how much they raise preflop. Overall I think it's correct to play more hands".
Randy 'NanoNoko' Lew was able to spare some time for us to talk about how his strategy has developed since he tweeted this morning.
"I like the game, but I'm still trying to figure out the strategy. It's tough. What I've gathered so far is people don't defend enough. They don't defend the button like that should. They also open fold way to much, limping is such a viable strategy that you should be limping so wide at this stage of the tournament".
"I think I'd like to see more of this type of tournament, once I get good at it that is. I think there's more skill and room for creativity, so it gives an advantage to the good players. I think there's going to be a higher proportion of good players at the final table in this event than in some other events".
Ante’s And Cash Games With iRockHoes
Scott Augustine and Jason KoonWe met up with Scott ‘iRockHoes’ Augustine in the poker kitchen this afternoon to get his take on the ante event playing today in the Brasilia room.
“It’s a fun change up. I’m primarily a cash player so I probably wouldn’t play this if it was a big 10k event or something, but I wanted to play this today and just see what it was like”.
“I think the most interesting adjustment to make is playing the Small blind position. It’s weird, because you act first both before and after the flop, there’s almost no incentive to play in the Small Blind. Do you play tight or do you lead big? Different people are adjusting different ways”.
“More generally, pot control is so important. The pot will get crazy out of control unless you limp and even then it’s going to be big”.
"There was a nuts hand on my table. I’m sitting next to Jason Koon and some guy 6 bet shoved A9 over Koon’s QQ. There’s so much money out there and the pot gets so big that people try to fight for it”.
We knew that Augustine was playing in some of the big cash games in the Rio frequently, so we asked him how they were going for him.
“The cash games are really good. I think they’re better during the week than on the weekend to be honest. On the weekend someone might buy into 5/10 for $800 dollars. The other day in the early week, a guy bought into my 5/10 table for $20,000, bluffed off $10,000 and just left without a care. That’s going to make the game good”.
We asked Scott how deep the games are playing, and if he had any interesting hands to share with us.
“The games play insane deep, 300 big blinds all the time. There was a pretty insane hand the other day where we were big blinds deep, over $6,000, and I raised to $50 with 66 after a limp. I got 4 callers, the limper, the button and the small blind. The flop comes KJ6 with no flush draw”.
“The limper checks and I check, the button bets 100, the small blind raises to 275, the limper calls, I call, the button makes it 675 and the small blind makes it 1675 and the limper folds. I just had no idea what to do and thought about it for a long time”.
“I decided on a fold and showed my hand to my side of the table. They couldn’t believe that a fold would be correct, so I made a $50 bet with each of them that It was the right fold”.
“I thought that either of them could have JJ in that spot a lot. Live players are superstitious, and often don’t like re-raising JJ pre-flop because they think overcard’s will come. Also, one guy has 6k. If he doubles up to 12-14k then he’s not going to be comfortable, and a lot of the time he’s just going to leave. I don’t want all that money leaving the table. There are more considerations that just the hands in play, I’m trading a high variance spot for a lower variance spot on a good, deep table”.
So what happened?
“Well, they both got it all in and they both had KJ. I would have loved to get it all in versus two KJ’s, but I like my play still. I spoke to my room-mate Brian ‘Stinger’ Hastings last night and he agrees that it was a good fold. Besides, I don’t think that play with KJ is good. Getting in $6,000 there is over playing to me. I was surprised. Shows the line between good players in these games, and great players who understand these things a bit better”.
What do you guys think of Scott’s fold here?
We’ll keep an eye on Scott Augustine through the rest of the series, and keep asking around for interesting hands in the big cash games in the Rio.
Celebrity Look-Alike
We spotted this Phil Laak look-alike in the brasilia room playing Event #49: $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em. We really think he looks like Phil Laak: In fact, the picture was originally taken for a 'Phil Laak Is In The Building' post, until we got a closer look and saw this this man is a shade more weathered in the skin department, and a lot quiet and less charismatic than Laak in the flesh.
Of course, we'll keep an eye out for the real Phil Laak in the coming weeks!
Phil Ivey :O
Phil Ivey must be the most out-of-the-loop player in the whole of the Rio. Check out this tweet about his late reg for the Ante-Only Hold'em Event!
The hand Petersen is referencing can be seen here.
Ante Up: Part 3
With the field for Event #49: $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em shrinking by the minute, we caught up with 2009 Main Event winner Joe Cada and Nosebleed PLO specialist Chance Kornuth to see how they liked the tournament and how they found the game to play.
"I've had fun" Cada told us. "I arrived late, and with the ante's rising it feels like a really fast turbo structure to me, might have been different earlier on. It feels similar to a normal tournament to me, if you just think about the size of the pot and the number of orbits you have left. There is a lot more limping of course, it's impossible to fold in late position with any hand pretty much."
Chance Kornuth was even more upbeat again.
"I thought it was fantastic. It brings the game back to an older form of poker where there are more people to each flop and there's more room for creativity. I'd love to see more of these types of unique games, there are enough straight Hold'em Tourneys. I also would like to see maybe one turbo, but personally I'm not in the 'we need lots of turbos now' camp."
"In terms of specific strategy... I think we all know that there are hands that play well in multiway pots and hands that play well in Heads-Up pots. I just try to get the right hands in the right situations as much as possible. Making that happen is going to make the game easy to play".
Final Table of Event 46
There are currently eight left in Event 46: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em. Joey “Cotchery89” Weissman currently has the chip lead. What started out as a low-key affair has now turned into a boisterous final table, punctuated by Weissman’s elimination of Joshua Pedraza. Here’s the reaction of Weissman’s rail moments after Pedraza’s bust.
Weissman celebrating with members of his rail after eliminating PedrazaAnother notable at this final table is Michael “Gags30” Gagliano. He has a star-studded rail which includes David “doubledave22” D’Alesandro, Partyush “FenwayKing” Buddiga, and 2011 Main Event Champion and Team PokerStars Pro Pius Heinz.
left to right: FenwayKing, DoubleDave22, Heinz, Daniel StrelitzIt’s not the first time this group has been spotted together at a final table rail. Last year they were here sweating Heinz at his 2011 Main Event final table.
Gags30, Heinz, FenwayKing,We'll do our best to catch up with them at break to get their thoughts.
Ante Up: Part 4
We’ve been talking to several pros about their approach in Event 48: $1,500 Ante-Only No-Limit Hold'em tournament. We encourage you to scroll up and read the first three parts of Ante Up before proceeding.
We caught up with Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov to get his insight.
“I didn’t come in with a set strategy," Katchalov said. “I came in with a more of a table dependent approach—more than normal. I’m seeing who’s raising, limping, and folding. Everybody's trying to figure it out. It’s so new and there’s not a lot of info out there yet.”
It seems to be working for now. He's currently fifth in chips.
Dinner Break With Joey Weissman
The final table of Event 46: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em is currently on break. Six players remain and Joey Weissman continues to have the chip lead.
We caught up with Weissman on break to get his thoughts thus far.
“It’s been a lot of fun. I’m been very aggressive as i should be with the chips I have. I’m glad a couple of the tougher players have been eliminated.”
One of those players was Michael “Gags30” Gagliano who busted in 7th place.
“I have quite a bit of respect for his game,” Weissman said. “We’ve played a lot online.”
Guess Gavin's Drink
We snapped a picture of Gavin Smith with his trademark cocktail. We’ve seen him on multiple occasions with the same drink but could never figure out what it was untill today. Lets see if our readers can figure it out.
We'll post the answer in tomorrow's edition of The Muck.
Ronnie Bardah Paying Us A Visit
WSOP 2012 bracelet winner Ronnie Bardah is being interviewed tonight in PokerNews headquarters. He'll be talking about his win in Event 40: $2,500 Limit Hold'em - Six-Handed and his adventures in Thailand. Keep an eye out for the podcast.
Ronnie Bardah on left. Donnie Peters adjacent to wall. Rich RyanFinal Table Bubble $50,000 PPC
Event 45: $50,000 Poker Players Championship is down to nine players.
Here are some shots of the action:
Terrance Chan on far leftWe caught up with spectator Terrance Chan to get his thoughts on the play.
"Pretty hard to say without seeing the cards but nobody is really playing to just move up. David (Oppenheim) and Bruno (Fitoussi) are the short stacks but they haven't been nitting it up to try to squeak into the final table, which is to be expected with a tournament of this magnitude and buy-in ($50,000)."
Action will conclude for the night once the bubble burst (eight handed final table for 8 game mix). Final table will start tomorrow.
The Grinder In One Drop?
David Oppenheim was the final table bubble boy of Event 45: $50,000 Poker Players Championship. The final table will start tomorrow. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi will be entering the day as the chip leader.
At an adjacent table we spotted Mizrachi’s rail, which included his brothers, Hassan Habib, and his friend "Louie." They were just sitting around, laughing and doing card tricks when Louie approached us and said, “Hey, you want a story for PokerNews?” Of course we snap-called obliged. He then proceeds to tell us that Michael Mizrachi will be playing in the One Drop. He then showed us this check as proof:
The buy in for One-Drop is $1,000,000, so maybe this is a deposit.
The Grinder In One Drop: Updated
Well, it's official. We just saw this tweet from Michael Mizrachi's twitter:
It's official @TheGrinder44 will be playing the $1,000,000 buy in One Drop event. Here is the deposit check! http://t.co/8KYAFbrx
June 27 2012FollowNight Cap
It’s the last level of play in Event 48: $3,000 Limit Hold'em and we were privy to some chatter at a table, featuring Maria Ho, Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel, and Dwyte Pilgrim.
The money bubble had just burst and judging by the beers Pilgrim and Duhamel were enjoying, the table was in good spirits. Ho was having what appeared to be some wine as well. Both Ho and Pilgrim were lamenting their birthday run-bad when they realized an upcoming tournament falls on their fateful day.
“I don’t think I’ve ever run-good on my birthday,” Ho said. “Maybe it’s the Poker Gods way of telling me to do something else with my life on my birthday.”
Moments later a short-stacked Mario Ho busted, but not before the waiter delivered her night cap.
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