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Off the Felt
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JUL 13
The Five Toughest Tables from the 2012 World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker always brings out the best competition from all over the world, which is why we are not surprised to see tough tables in the mix. But 2012 was a year of many tough tables, including one that many people are calling the toughest of all time, so we've put together a list of five of this year's toughest tables:
#5: The First Table of Death
It was early in the series that we found our first Table of Death and it only took two events to get there. Amidst the madness in Event #2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, this lineup emerged while the players were well into the money:
Phil Hellmuth
Hoyt Corkins
John Juanda
Vanessa SelbstWe even managed to get an orbit of what it was like at this table with pro Alan Sass.
Vanessa Selbst went on to finish fourth in the event, while Brent Hanks walked away as the winner.
#4: The Toughest Main Event Table:
It's not often you find a table so stacked in the Main Event on the first few days, which is why we were surprised when we found one on Day 2c. In a field of starters, Johnny Chan, Randy Lew, Shannon Shorr, Lee Watkinson, and Andy Frankenberger all sat down at the same table.
Shannon Shorr, Andy Frankenberger, Johnny Chan, and Randy Lew all at the same tableThe five players have around $18,500,000 in live winnings combined. Chan boasts the most with his $7,000,000 in winnings and Lew brings up the rear with around $800,000. Lew might be on the bottom of the totem pole in terms of live life time winnings compared to these older pros, but he is very young and possessed more chips than anyone else at the table. By the end of Day 2c, Lew and Frankenberger had both fallen at the hands of Johnny Chan. I guess we know who came out ahead.
#3: The Lowball Madness Starting Table
The field was stacked in Event #60: $10,000 2 – 7 Lowball (No-Limit), and due to that we saw some of the most incredible table draws ever. Here's the deadliest one we found in the bunch:
Seat 1: Unknown Player
Seat 2: George Danzer
Seat 3: Chino Rheem
Seat 4: Justin Bonomo
Seat 5: Michael Binger
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein
The 2 - 7 Table of DeathOnly one player from this starting table managed to book a cash, and it was George Danzer who finished in third place, taking home $115,295.
#2: The Mix Max Table of Death
In Event #6: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Mix Max, we saw another insane table draw that just kept getting tougher and tougher. At the table was Erik Seidel, Chris Moorman, Jason Mercier, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, JC Tran, and one player who had zero World Series of Poker cashes, Kirill Kruglov. Kruglov must have felt like a very small fish in a very large pond at the table full of sharks.
Erik Seidel at the Table of Death in Event #6Unfortunately for all the players at this table, none of them were able to lock up a cash in the event. Oh well, on to the next one.
#1 The Toughest Table of All Time?
All of the sharks came out to play the Big One for One Drop, but none of them expected to be put in the same tank as the others. Jason Mercier, Phil Ivey, Ben Lamb, Antonio Esfandiari, Eugene Katchalov, Tom Marchese, Noah Schwartz and Vivek Rajkumar were all seated at the same table for a while. Mercier even said he thought it was one of the toughest tables he'd ever seen.
Over 74% of our poll voters said that this was definitely the toughest table ever formed.
The Toughest Table Ever?Antonio Esfandiari was able to come out of the toughest table ever though as the winner of the Big one for One Drop, pocketing nearly $18,000,000 while none of the other players at the table cashed.
The series is not quite over yet, but it would be quite hard to make it on the list of the top five toughest table draws now as there are only a few days remaining in the Main Event. Either way, it's been another amazing year of poker, and with these tough table draws, we were able to capture some of the most exciting moments of history on the felt.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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JUL 13
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 47 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
A Legend Will Rise: Main Event- Day 4
It’s Friday the 13th, 666 players will make the money today, and it’s raining in Las Vegas. Needless to say, day four of the Main Event is off to an ominous start, but don’t worry folks, PokerNews will be here providing updates, despite the pending apocalypse. With only 720 players remaining, all play has consolidated to the Amazon room. Here are some of the images right before the start of play.
Here is Kara Scott interviewing Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst and Liv Boeree along with Maria Ho.
Left to right: Selbst, Ho, BoereeWe spotted Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu with Ali Nejad.
Actor Kevin Pollak is still alive. We'll be sure to keep an eye on him.
Kevin PollakDavid D'Alesandro enters the day as the current chip leader.
Dave "doubledave22" D'AlesandroHere's fan favorite Gavin Smith getting ready for the day.
Gavin SmithMurders Row
Here are images of the feature tables. Each is armed with a killer lineup.
Opponents will have their hands full with TeamPokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst.
Eric Baldwin and Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu figure to butt heads.
Antonio Esfandiari seems relaxed. Well, who wouldn't be after winning the One-Drop? As we passed by the table we overheard Esfandiari sarcastically lamenting his bad luck, "I've run so sh*tty this summer."
We're In The Money!
The money bubble broke before the end of the first level of play this afternoon. Amazingly, there was four all-ins with 667 players remaining (666 paid). We were able to catch some of the sights and sounds of the bubble bursting.
The dealers were instructed to stand during the hand-for-hand process:
Here were some of the short stacks sweating it out:
The bubble didn't seem to affect this player:
Here's a hand of one of the four unfortunate bubble boys:
Kevin Pollak Survives The Bubble
Actor Kevin Pollak has been entertaining his tablemates all series long with jokes, impressions, and even song and dance routines. We caught Pollak singing, “I’m a min casher”, to the beat of the Wheel of Fortune promo song, “I’m a wheel watcher.”
When asked how he felt about surviving the bubble, Pollak replied, “It’s surreal, I’ve been grinding a shortstack forever. I’m sitting at around 200K. I need a double up.”
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JUL 12
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 46 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
Early Sights at the Rio
The Rio is still hectic as nearly 1,760 player were rushing to their seats early this morning to get ready to begin day 3 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event. Seen in the hallways this morning was Vanessa Selbst, who is among the chip leaders going in to day 3. Selbst was partaking in an interview with our very own Sarah Grant which we will post later.
Also seen this morning was Kennii Nguyen who has also built a healthy stack of 268,000 going into day 3.
Kennii NguyenNoticeably missing from Nguyen's wardrobe were his classic trademarked jester hats. He had traded in the hats for a set of Mardi Gras beads as well as shades and a full body pillow. It's just not the same around the Rio without seeing Nguyen's hats.
Also seen this morning was at least one member of the Orange Shoe Brigade from yesterday's Fashion Faux Pas section.
One gentleman was making his way down to his table this morning when he was approached by ESPN cameras.
"I'm at the feature table with Negreanu today," the man shouted. "He's got 200k and I'm gonna take it all before the day's over."
Quite a task for the man, but we'll see how he does.
Dealer of the Year
It was announced today that Timothy "EggrollSlimTim" Louie had earned the honors of Dealer of the Year today for his fine performance throughout the series. Louie was one of the dealers this year for the Big One For One Drop tournament.
Tim Louie
We'll catch up with Louie if we can find him and give you some of his thoughts about winning the Dealer of the Year award.
There Will Be A New Champion
We just got word that 2011 Main Event Champion Pius Heinz has hit the rail.
With that announcement, we can confirm that a new champion will be crowned this year. And it could be any one of the nearly 1,700 remaining players.
WSOPoses
There are some poses that are just typical in the World Series of Poker. This is one of them:
"The Hellmuth""The Hellmuth," is a pose pioneered by World Series of Poker Twelve-Time Bracelet Winner Phil Hellmuth. Far too often we see Phil taking this pose in an attempt to hide all tells from his opponent. Also fond of this pose is pro Scott Seiver. The only problem that we have with this gentleman is that he isn't even in a hand! What's he hiding from?
And then we found a second gentleman making a similar attempt to hide all of his tells:
Once again the man isn't even in a hand. What the purpose of hiding 24/7? Maybe he was just hiding from the ESPN camera crews.
Featured
Headlining the two ESPN main feature tables today are poker pros Daniel Negreanu and Antonio Esfandiari. Also, making an appearance in the shot behind Negreanu is the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event Bracelet:
The Main Event Bracelet and Daniel NegreanuNegreanu doesn't seem to be having the best time at the Main Event Feature Table. Here's a tweet we saw regarding his progress:
At least he's still laughing.
Antonio Esfandiari is at the secondary feature table today and he is trying out some interesting seat poses as his buddy Phil Laak was doing yesterday:
He at least seems to be having a better time than Negreanu is.
ESPN has also set up three more feature tables in Murders' Row. Among the players in Murders' Row today are Ben Lamb, Vanessa Selbst, and start of the day chip leader Gaelle Bauman. It should be a real treat to viewers to see play from all three of those players in Murderers Row when coverages airs on ESPN.
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JUL 11
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 45 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
The Morning Grind
This morning we saw a lot of familiar faces as players return from Sunday Main Event day 1C to play in day 2C today. Notable sighting are Jen Harman, David 'Doc' Sands, Ben Lamb, Jason Mercier and Prahlad Friedman. Today's chip leader is Randy Haddox with 188,275. He'll be hoping to catch tournament chip leader Gale Baumann, who has 505,800, by the end of the day.
Prahlad Friedman early to his seat
Jason Mercier looking as small as his stackAlso going on today is the final table of the 10k National Championship, which will be taking place on the main stage in the Amazon room at one o'clock. The sportsbook is not taking bets on the action today, but here's a summary of the 8 runners remaining and their respective chip counts.
Seat 1 David “ODB” Baker 281,000
Seat 2 Amanda Musumeci 322,000
Seat 3 Sam Stein 651,000
Seat 4 Huy Nguyen 331,000
Seat 5 Yung Hwang 1,224,000
Seat 6 Nikolas Stone 471,000
Seat 7 Matt Keikoan 957,000
Seat 8 Ryan Eriquezzo 474,000Since there are no odds, we'll give you a chance to pick your favorites here in The Muck.
Read more about the WSOP National Championship Here
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JUL 10
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 44 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
A Legend Will Rise: Day 2a/b
It’s day 2a/b of Event 61: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event. Of the 1066 entries, 657 will be returning. Some of the notables resuming play this afternoon include, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst (168,350), Jamie Armstrong (120,440), Faraz Jaka (115,775), Ryan Welch (110,425), and Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer (84,000). You can view a list of today's starting chip counts here.
The field figures to be well rested and refreshed after a day off. We’ll be talking to several of the pros to find out how they spent the free time in preparation for today. We caught up with Danzer in the Pavilion for a quick chat.
How are you feeling heading into day two?
Feeling good. I got about 84k (in chips).
Did you have chance to check out your table draw today?
Yes, there are two players I know, Robert Varkonyi, and Tim Flanders. I’ve played with Tim in London before. The table draw is perfect for me.
You have a healthy stack to start the day, what’s your game plan?
I have a lot of flexibility with my stack and I like how I line up with the other stack sizes at my table. I’m gonna continue putting pressure on my opponents and maintain aggression.
How did you spend your day off?
I went to a BBQ with friends. It was nice to get away from poker for a while.
MLB All-Star Game
Kansas City will host the MLB All-Star game today in Kauffman Stadium. NL starter Matt Cain will square off versus AL starter Justin Verlander. The wining side will gain home field advantage in the World Series. We spotted this gentleman sporting a Kansas City Royal jersey, which begs the question, who’s your pick to win the game?
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JUL 09
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 43 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!
Main Event Madness: Morning Shenanigans
It's another mad house at the Rio for the final day of starting flights for the 2012 Main Event. Seen among the crowds this morning were Tom Marchese, William Reynolds, Matt Marafioti, Jeff Madsen, Noah Schwartz, and many more. Also spotted this morning was the Jack Links Sasquatch:
The PokerNews team was in a sticky situation this morning as we tried to capture a picture of Sasquatch, but he spotted us at the last minute. It was either stay and focus the picture, or run for survival. We chose the later option.
Sasquatch was angrily scouting the halls of the Rio just before the Main Event was about to kick off, and we think he was after the guy in the giant banana suit:
Run banana run!Either way it looks like it's going to be another eventful day at the Rio as the last of the starting flights should bring in the biggest crowd.
To check out hands, chip counts, and more updates from day 1c of the Main Event, make sure you check out the live reporting blog for all the updates.
Murderers Row: Main Event Day 1C
Today in Murderers' Row are three more champs, and even more big names and faces. In case you didn't know, Murderers' Row is the name we've given to the space in the Amazon Room under the Main Event Champion's Banners where three different Main Event champions have been seated every day so far of the Main Event.
At the table closest to the door in the corner of the Amazon room is 2010 Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel. Next to Duhamel is Scott Baumstein.
Baumstein and Duhamel -
JUL 08
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 42 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!
Shuffle Up And Deal
Today's Event #61: No-Limit Hold'em Main Event Day 1c was introduced with a rousing speech by MMA fighter Georges St. Pierre. St. Pierre is playing today, so the opening words contained at least 4 puns about him 'putting a bad beat' on someone, and the aim of the tournament being to 'not tap out too early'. It's all in good fun and it kicked the day off in an exciting fashion. We'll keep an eye out for St. Pierre and see how his stack is coming along as the day progresses.
GSP wasn't the only familiar face around the Rio early this morning. Also up and ready to rumble were Dennis Philips, Collin Moshman, Dan Harrington, Mickey Petersen and Ashton 'Ashman' Griffin. All will be hoping for a strong start to their Main Event campaign, which will stretch over the next week here at the Rio. Tune into PokerNews for all the latest updates.
Back In Fashion
Daniel Day Lewis mustaches are making a big comeback in the Rio today and, despite the sweltering weather today in Las Vegas, so are big red bobble hats! Also featured is one of the original members of Village People in his leather biker hat!
Mustache Man / Daniel Day Lewis
40 degrees Celsius...
Big Red Bobble Hat
Village People? -
JUL 07
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 41 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 here! After five weeks and 60 events the Main Event starts today. The halls in the Rio are buzzing with players, media, and fans. We've already spotted actor Kevin Pollak signing autographs and its not even noon yet here in Vegas, so keep checking back with the Muck as we'll be updating throughout the day.
In the meantime, Event 60: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball (No-Limit) resumes today and only 10 players remain. Here are the odds courtesy of the Rio sportsbook:
Benjamin Parker: 19/5
Bob Bright: 10/1
Ali Eslami: 7/1
George Danzer: 4/1
John Juanda: 3/1
Andy Bloch: 25/1
Nick Schulman: 2/1
Ashton Griffin: 3/2
Mike Wattel: 9/2
Larry Wright: 19/2PokerNews Podcast: Eugene Katchalov
Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov is our guest on the PokerNews podcast today. Make sure you keep an eye out for it. Katchalov talks about the One-Drop, Mikhail Smirnov's folding of quads, and the Main Event.
From left to right Eugene Katchalov, Donnie Peters, and Rich RyanSights In The Amazon
Day 1a of the Main Event is underway in the Amazon room. Here are some of the more interesting sights seen so far:
We spotted Ray Romano.
He's been a fixture at the Main Event for several years now. We'll keep our eyes peeled for Romano's friend and former co-star Brad Garrett.
Check out the rail for Romano:
We walked by Kevin Pollak's table just as he was jokingly berating an opponent, in a pitch perfect Robert De Niro voice, for raising his big blind.
This player must’ve thought he was playing in the Amazon Rainforest.
PokerNews' own, Kristy Arnett, is playing in her first ever WSOP Main Event. She's no fish though. Arnett plays plenty of poker and will be a force to be reckoned with. Check out Lynn Gilmartin's interview with her from earlier today.
Here are a few shots of the ever growing crowd in the Amazon room:
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JUL 06
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 40 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
The Calm Before The Storm
Today the Rio hosts The WSOP $10,000 National Championship. This prestigious tournament is one of the invite only events, open to the years most successful circuit grinders and the top 100 WSOP ranked superstars alike. It will take place in a small corner of the Brasilia room today, and a lot of big names are likely to feature. At 11:45 this morning we saw David 'Doc' Sands and Joseph Cheong already in their seats, ready to begin play. We'll let you know who else shows up as the day goes on.
Really though, this is just the calm before the storm. Tomorrow the much anticipated Main Event will begin, and it's likely most pros will be taking today off to get their heads right for the big one.
What? Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me?
One player in the invitational hasn't kept a very close eye on the the world of the poker this last year. Seen here wearing a particularly infamous jersey, he's either the bravest or most uninformed man in the Rio today!
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JUL 05
First Five with First-Time World Series of Poker Bracelet Winner Will Jaffe
Despite Luis Campelo’s boisterous Brazilian rail, so loud that the match had to be moved from the Amazon Room to the Pavilion as to not disturb neighboring tables, Will Jaffe’s rail was not to be outdone. With chants of “USA! USA! USA!” showering down on the Long Island native, Jaffe finished off Campelo heads-up. For winning, Jaffe will take home $500,075 and his first WSOP bracelet. We caught up with Jaffe moments after his win in Event #54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
What was your first thought after winning the match?
This is not real!
Who’s the first person you’re going to call?
I called my mom already.
What was the first significant turning point for you at the final table?
When we were three handed, me and another player Joe [Joseph Kuether] and [Luis Campelo], I stacked Joe, which was a huge momentum swing for me since he was the player I was most worried about.
What’s the first thing you’re going to do to celebrate?
We’re gonna party!
Who was the first person to congratulate you after wining?
My girlfriend and then my whole rail joined in.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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