The Muck
Card Guards
Bernard Lee
George Lind III
Maverick Movie
Off the Felt
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JUL 03
Poker Pros React to Antonio Esfandiari's $18 Million Win and the Big One for One Drop
On Tuesday, Antonio Esfandiari was awarded the largest prize in poker history. He defeated Sam Trickett in the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop, to pocket $18,346,673. Shortly after his win, we caught up with poker pros who were at the Rio to get their reactions on Esfandiari's win and the event in general.
First we caught up with Jennifer Tilly who was standing in the hallway on break from Event #58: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better.
“It was fantastic,” Tilly said about the final table. “I was playing in the same room and just listening and watching I got the chills. The hair stood up on my arms. I never doubted that he could do it though. He took a positive mentality lecture a while back and he's been really focused ever since. He sent an email to Phil the other day saying 'This is my time.'”
“It was a fantastic final table though and I think it will be really exciting for the viewers," she continued. “Guy was there, and of course Phil Hellmuth Jr. and he's always a crowd favorite. Then our really good friend Brian Rast was there. I feel like it's going to be awesome for television, but the only thing is that the Main Event is going to feel a little anti-climatic after this.”
We noticed that Phil Laak wasn't in the crowd for Esfandiari's win, so we asked Tilly about it.
“He was there for a little bit and he was on the rail, but there was too many people there for him. He doesn't like big crowds. Too much energy. He was watching the closed circuit though and he texted me after he won.”
“I cried a lot,” Laak said in the text to Tilly. “When he gave the bracelet to his dad, I cried again. Super baller.”
“All the boys are out partying now,” she told us.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier told us, “I think it's pretty good. It would've been nice to see Guy [Laliberte] win since it was his event and he does so much for charity, but Antonio is a good player and he played great. It's still really great.”
Erik Seidel gave us a bit of insight into the outcome of the Big One for One Drop as well.
“I think it's great for poker. For me, it was an odd situation because I wanted the business men to win who were gonna give the money to charity, but it was also cool to see two elite players battle it out heads-up for the money. I think Sam is arguably the best no-limit tournament player in the world at the moment, and obviously Antonio's a great player who's been around a long time so it was a monster heads-up match. I hope I'll still be playing in years to come, I want to. I can't see it being an annual thing though. Bi-annual would be my guess.”
Jonathan Duhamel and Haralabos Voulgaris were standing in the hallway on break from Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six Handed so we asked them for some reactions as well.
“I think it's really cool, and congrats to him for win,” Duhamel said. “He's a really good guy and he speaks well so I think he will be a very good ambassador for the poker players. I would've liked to see Guy win though since he does so much for everyone.”
We asked the two if this victory will change the landscape of poker, and both of them agreed that not much will change because of this.
“Most of the pros who were playing the event didn't actually have that much of themselves, so it won't change too much. But having a pro win, and a pro come second will be good for the poker economy because that way the money will flow back in, and it won't just vanish,” Voulgaris said.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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JUL 03
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 37 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!
Check out the odds for today's Event #54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, taking place in the Pavilion room today.
Luis Campelo 18/1
Carl Le 9/2
Ken Fishman 5/2
Nghi Van Tran 17/2
Jeffery Fielder 22/1
Clayton Fletcher 22/1
Brett Schwertley 14/1
Ian Chan 21/1
Jason Thompkins 9/2
Benjamin Volpe 19/2
Muhamet Perati 17/2
Will Jaffe 8/5
Benjamin Grise 13/2
David 'Bakes' Baker 8/1
Joe Kuether 11/1We know you all want to hear about the odds for Event #55: $1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop - No-Limit Hold'em, but for some reason the Rio Sportsbook isn't offering them. We'll try to find out more as the day goes on. Either way, you can tune into the One Drop here. Enjoy the day.
Stacked Field In 10k 6Max
There's not one table in today's Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed that doesn't have a big name pro on it. On the stroke of noon, we took a turn through the brasilia room to see who we recognised, and we saw Brian 'Stinger' Hastings, Lex Veldhuis, Andrew 'luckychewy' Lichtenberger, Terrence Chan and Chris Moorman among many others.
Aaron 'aeones' Jones (front) and Eugene Katchalov
Mike 'timex' McDonald and Isaac 'Ike' Haxton (front)Finally we came across one of the hardest working men in poker, desperate for his first bracelet of the year after busting the One Drop yesterday, Mr. Phil Ivey. Ivey was on time today and in his chair by noon, a sign of how determined he is at this point of the series. Already at 12:15pm he has a mini-rail forming behind him. He's pretty oblivious to the crowd as usual.
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JUL 02
Off the Felt With Shaun the Dealer: Fame, Fortune, and Twitter
You may recognize Shaun Harris from televised poker, but not as a poker player. Shaun Harris, or "Shaun the Dealer," has dealt numerous high-profile events, and has developed quite the reputation because of it. In his career he has dealt the Main Event final table for four years, he has also dealt the $50,000 Poker Players Championship as well as the Tournament of Champions. Sunday, his task was to deal at the Big One for One Drop. PokerNews caught up with Harris to ask him a few quick questions about his job, the fan base he has gathered, and his relationships with some of the poker pros.
Does it ever get nerve wracking doing your job; being in so many high pressure situations?
It does. And I'm not going to deny it, either. I've been dealing since '05. I've done the Main Event final table since '07. I did the Tournament of Champions in '09.
What sets you apart from the other dealers that gets you to deal at higher-profile events like this?
I think it's very obvious that I enjoy what I do. I learn and practice dealing all the games and I seldom make mistakes. It just shows that all the work I do is really paying off.
Do you have a relationship with any of the pros? If so, how have those come about for you?
It was very surprising to me really that they remembered me. I remember two years ago at the Poker Players Championship final table, I was dealing to Michael Mizrachi, and I ended up dealing him a pretty bad beat, but after the tournament he came up to me and talked to me and we ended up becoming very good friends. Even Phil Ivey will come up to me sometimes and say hi to me before I say hi to him. It's flattering and it's very good for me, too, because that might be that extra step I need to set myself apart. It also helps me because eventually I want to start coming from the other side of the table and playing a little bit.
Are you a very big player then?
I do play a lot, but I only play $2/$5 and $1/$3. I don't play a lot of tournaments because I don't have the patience to sit there. I like to just get the money in and win. I like to grind it out.
One of the other things we meant to ask you about was the big following that you're starting to develop on Twitter.
Oh, that's a funny story. Back in October, I only had very few followers on Twitter, maybe only 10 or 20. I remember I was dealing at the PCA in the Bahamas and Jonathan Duhamel came up to me and he recognized me as the dealer who dealt his winning hand from the 2010 final table, and he ended up shouting out a tweet to me. On that day I ended up getting to like 100 followers, and from there I was all the way up to 500. Today, Daniel Negreanu recognized me and he shot out a tweet to me too. I went from 787 followers to over a thousand today, maybe almost 1,200 in just one hour.
Would you say you're the most famous dealer?
I wouldn't say I'm the most famous. I am one of the more noticeable dealers. Twitter helps a lot. I'm not going to say that I do my job better than these guys (pointing to his coworkers); I'm not much different than any of my coworkers. They do the same job as me and work just as hard.
“He's definitely the most famous dealer,” one of his coworkers chimed in.
You can follow "Shaun the Dealer" on Twitter: @Shaunthedealer. He is currently back to work dealing at Event 55: $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop and you can follow the PokerNews coverage of the event here.
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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.
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