LETS VC YOU AT THE SERIES
WSOP NEWS UPDATES
DAY 19
Play is about to start on Day 19. Coming up this afternoon…First up, the heads-up No Limit Hold’em… if this gets going on time it’ll be a miracle.
WAITING GAME
The players are milling about waiting for the heads up matches to be announced. The room has dealers at every table with two chip stacks and a deck fanned out on every table. The play will be slightly delayed today due to special requirements needed to run this tournament. The plan is to do a random drawing for each match to be played.
Per Ummer, Thor Hansen, William Thorsen, and an unknown check out some beautiful scenery
LIVE AT THE HEADS UP CHAMPIONSHIP
Heads-up Championship
Former ”Live at the Bike” announcers David Tuchman and Bart Hanson, like all the other poker pros, wait and listen to the names getting called off by the announcer one by one.
David wasn’t even planning on playing this event but, at the last minute, he asked Bart to sign him up while he headed down. They were two of the last admitted.
”This will take an hour at least,” Bart comments.
”I still don’t like the one hundred and twenty byes,” David says. ”A third of the field gets the first round off. That’s huge, since no one hear has that massive an edge in heads-up no limit.”
”As long as we’re not on the same table.”
”For the finals,” I say, ”that would rule: a LATB reunion.”
”The format is good, though,” David remarks. ”You play, maybe win in five, ten, twenty minutes, then you have hours to rest until your next match.”
It’s announced that players with a bye can come back at five; neither Bart or David think that’s when the second round will start.
Unlike many players hoping for an easy first round opponent, David and Bart are hoping to be matched against any of the games big names. Besting John Q. Sixpack may get you further into the field but these consummate players want to beat the premier names.
Doyle Brunson and his son Todd, as well as Barry Greenstein and his son Joe, all are awarded byes.
”Yeah, like they need them,” David says, waiting for his match to be announced, as they first announced all the seat ones, then all the byes, and then all the seat twos.
Waiting like we’re all waiting for this event to start.
VINNY?
Vinny Vinh has not shown up for the continuation of the six handed tournament. This is the second time at this years World Series that he has failed to appear for day two. Last time he held the chip lead at the beginning of the day and never showed up. Today he has substantially less chips. He will have much less time to get down here, if he decides to come.
Vinny Vinh…73,800 and counting……….DOWN.
WILLIAM THORSON - THE NEW MAGICIAN
Heads-up Championship
William Thorson shuffles his chips in rhythm, never missing a click or a clack, back and forth they go in his hand as he stares at his opponent through his designer Euro-shades, his white sweatshirt wrapped around him in the frigid ballroom more noticeable today due to the fewer players in the heads-up format.
Three green chips ($75) already committed to the small blind on his button, William kicks in a $100 black chip and retrieves the green to complete. He shuffles his checks and stares.
The big blind retrieves the greens and puts out two blacks for a raise.
The shuffling and staring continues. William doesn’t flinch otherwise. Back and forth; forth and back.
He then reaches out and grabs his $150 in chips, adding them to the stack he’s shuffling. That isn’t impressive but his next move is, begging the question of whether Antonio Esfandiari should be still called The Magician or is there a new wielder of that moniker.
Shuffle-shuffle-shuffle.
He flicks his wrists and a blue ($500) and three blacks appear for a re-raise.
He continues shuffling.
His opponent, impressed by the display, folds.
William doesn’t even crack a smile, despite being one step closer to round two.
CAPTAIN HELPFUL
Heads-up Championship
Andrew Black isn’t savouring the first round of this heads-up tournament.
After limping in for $150 and having his opponent call via two $100 chips, Andrew doesn’t wait for the dealer to make the change but rather flings two greens from his limp into the opponent’s stack, gathers up all the chips, and puts them in front of the dealer.
”Go ahead,” he instructs and the dealer starts the hand, his expression amused from the help received.
A few hands later the same situation arises and it’s a repeat performance.
Andrew Black: dealer-in-training.
$3,000 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
The final of the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em is under way. Already there have been two fallers; neither though go by the name of Phil Hellmuth…
Jason Dong and Luke Vrable went out in ninth and tenth place respectively. That leaves…
NO LIMIT HOLD’EM 6 HANDED
The 6-Handed Hold’em event is also well into its second day. Hoyt Corkins still leads the field by over 100,000; and among the leaders is Terrence Chan, improving on his overnight position.
ROUND 1 GOES TO THE DYNAMIC DUO
Heads-up Championship
American commentators and soon-to-be in international sensations with their impressive 2007 WSOP showings Bart Hanson and David Tuchman have each destroyed their first round opponents: 2006 Rookie of the Year Jeff Madsen and loudmouth high stakes cash game player Shawn ”Sheiky” Sheikhan.
While Bart’s strategy involved calling down Madsen until he caught his flush, David employed alternate means by pushing Sheiky off his game before the first hand was even dealt.
”Mind if I take a picture with you?” David asked, running around the table and snapping off a picture on his digital camera.
The flabbergasted and confused Sheiky never was the same after and David crushed him handily in near record time.
Go get ‘em in round two, fellas!
Tuchman
THE MIGHTY THOR
”Why aren’t you playing in this event?”
Thor Hansen: ”I decided to play in the Stud event. I won’t play in multiple events in the same day. Plus the byes are crazy. I know without 256 or 512 player byes had to be awarded, but it’s a free round on the way to a bracelet which is supposed to be prestigious but is lessened.
”They’re so greedy, just wanting more money and not caring about the integrity of the event and what the byes mean and how it cheapens the win if the bracelet goes to one who got a bye — and about a third of the field did. But we players play anyway because we want to play and they basically have a monopoly.”
BET YOU DON’T NEED JUST ONE
The cash chips are kept securely tucked away behind the casino cage. The tournament chips are in the rear of the room in what appear to be flimsy cabinets with cheap locks. The cabinets were left open for just a few seconds and I managed to sneak a peak.
They might look flimsy but each one can hold 78,000 chips. Excluding the weight of the racks, that’s 1,821 lbs. of chips in each cabinet. Multiply nearly a ton by five and you have almost 10 tons of chips sitting in the back corner of the Amazon room ready for action.
How many chips does it take to run the World Series of Poker? Just a couple.
A CHALLENGE TO SAM FARHA
Sammy Farha lost his heads up battle against Tony G. On the last hand Farha bet all of his remaining chips with middle pair after G checked behind on the flop. Tony beat him into the pot, he had just been trapping with his pair of aces.
Sammy was bust and he stepped up from the table. We’ve heard stories about the massive amount of money being tossed around in Bobby’s Room at Bellagio, so I wanted to know if he was headed over there.
”Are you going over to Bellagio now Sammy?”
”Maybe… Why? You wanna play?” he smiled slyly.
”Heads up for rollz?” I asked. Farha just laughed heartily as he walked away.
”Are you serious???”
POKER DIAGONALS - GOOFUS AND GALANT
Heads-up Championship
Whilst the traditional set-up of a poker table is the dealer centred on one side of the table with eight, nine, or ten players surrounding him in a circle, it’s not that way for the Heads-up Championship.
To best use the available real estate, two matches are assigned to each table.
This scenario has two players sitting next to each other on each side of the table, but they aren’t playing together or have anything to do with each other.
There are some interesting diagonals established - and around the room those tables with multiple interesting diagonals draw the most attention from media and railbird alike.
One such diagonal is on Table 18: The pairing of Mike ”The Mouth” Matusow and France’s own Fabrice Soulier.
Their job is the same — win all their opponents’ chips — but their application of their respective skills couldn’t be more disparate, mirrored in the room as each has the opportunity to display their prowess in beat to their own inner demons and drummers.
Mike Matusow and his poker stylings are (in)famous enough but Frenchman Fabrice ”Soul Calibur” Soulier plays an altogether different game.
Staring his opponent down under the brim of his designer black ball-cap, he appears to be looking at nothing at all but instead concentrates his focus on an area few spend enough attention: the hands.
Fabrice doesn’t concern himself with his opponent’s eyes; rather, he watches, his eyes flicking about in Phil Ivey fashion, the fingers and hands of his prey. What are they doing? What does it mean?
His diagonal partner, Mike Matusow, isn’t a student of the hands or their meaning, instead he talks and squirms and complains and flaps his arms and slams his hat down and questions whether this idiot (as he says) that he’s playing against knows what’s going on.
Fabrice plays a slow, conservative game, opting to chip his opponent down, piece by piece, clay by clay, unit by unit. Matusow is loud, flamboyant, crashing and burning and building himself up just in time to knock himself back down with ludicrous, unwinnable bluffs.
Fabrice loses a hand and says nothing.
Matusow loses one and asks his opponent, ”Why did you call the turn when you knew you were beat?”
Fabrice wins a hand with a well-timed river raise and gathers his chips up in silence.
Matusow raises and shows a bluff after getting the fold, telling his opponent he’s a donkey.
Fabrice adds over $1,000 to his chip stack and doesn’t make a show.
Matusow adds $1,000 to his arsenal and says how great he is at poker.
On a board of…
Fabrice value-bets a third of the pot when checked to, gets a call, and wins with a King but no flush; he says nothing after the new score.
On a board of…
Mike value-bets half the pot when checked to, gets a call, and loses with a Queen as his opponent has a lonely but winning three of diamonds; Mike erupts to his feet and asks the crowd, ”Can anyone play better than me and still lose to an idiot like this?”
”I get trips, trips, a boat, the nuts, quads, three flushes, six or seven two pairs, and no action and no chips and now when a big pair comes through he’s got a bigger one and I’m so unlucky as he never has a hand when I do and I do when he does and now this idiot is advancing but I’m not.”
There’s no crying in poker!
Fabrice’s opponent gets the turn of his dreams to complete the flush — and the Frenchman is eliminated. Fabrice shakes his opponent’s hand and walks away.
Mike’s pocket Tens don’t improve on the flop, turn, or river and he is disgusted. ”I cannot win no matter how good I play,” he laments.
How you play is very important; how you act when you fail might even be more so.
LADIES NIGHT AT THE RIO?
An interesting situation is brewing in the Amazon room. Katja Thater is heads up in the Razz event and has a monster chiplead.
Katja seems unstoppable.
Meanwhile, over in the No Limit Hold’em event, Beth Shak is dominating the table with a 4-1 chip lead over the second place player.
There are only three players left in that one, and it looks like today might be a good day for a WSOP record. If these two women prevail, it will be the first time ever in WSOP history that two women win bracelets in one day!
ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO
Katja has just taken down the Razz bracelet. The No Limit tournament is heads up with Beth Shak and Shankar Pillai battling. The chip stacks in that one are just about even now. Katja did her part, will Beth be able to seal it?
$1,500 RAZZ
Not only is it a great day for German poker, but more importantly a great day for a player in that category that often has to work harder to prove they have the right to a seat at the table. The first woman to win a bracelet this year outside of the Ladies event; Katja Thater has won her first WSOP bracelet in the Razz event, beating the likes of Eskimo Clark, Mark Vos and Men ‘The Master’ along the way…
$3,000 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
Event 28 also crowned its winner today when Shankar Pillai denied Beth Shak from becoming one of two women bracelet winners on the same day. Beth had to settle for second ahead of Jason Song, Dustin Holmes and Phil Hellmuth, who was in pursuit of his 12th gold bracelet.
NO LIMIT HOLD’EM 6-HANDED
Event 30 has its final table ready. The No Limit Hold’em Six Handed final will look like this…
Notably it’s Hoyt Corkins at the top of the table. The man from Texas has lead this event almost from start to finish, or start to final at least.
THOMAS WAHLROOS VERSUS PATRIK ANTONIUS
Heads-up Championship
The biggest match of the third round is without a doubt the head’s up game between the two Fins, Patrik Antonius and Thomas Wahlroos.
It gathers the attention of many, including Thor Hansen.
”What do you think about them?” I ask Thor.
”Patrik is an amazing, talented player,” Thor replies. ”He’s great.”
”What about Thomas?”
”Mediocre. It’s not close.
In the first few hands, Patrik cripples Thomas and dominate him with a ten to one chip lead, proving Thor’s point.
Patrik Antonius
Thomas bets about a third of his stack on the river, getting Patrik to fold, and Thomas shows a Seven high. ”Can you beat that?”
”Nice value bluff,” Patrick responds.
A few hands later, the scenario is reversed, Patrik goes to show his bluff, but then doesn’t. ”My value bluffs work too,” Patrik says.
Time passes, Thomas chipping up to about double his low point. Now the board comes…
Thomas bets the pot and Patrik calls.
”Can you beat a deuce?” Thomas asks, flipping up a Two.
”Yes,” Patrik answers.
”What about a King kicker?” Thomas asks, turning that over as well for Kings and Twos.
Patrick mucks, his smile gone.
Thomas continues to chip his way up and Patrik is a bit upset, telling a few people walking by that he just cannot put Thomas away. Marcel Luske steps away from the Stud event to join Daniel Negreanu and the ever-growing crowd watching poker at its finest.
NOW WE HAVE A GAME
Heads-Up Championship
Wahlroos min-raises with Ace-Queen, Patrik goes all-in, and Wahlroos calls. If he wins he’s tied with Patrik and if he loses he’s out. The flop and turn are no good but he rivers a Queen.
”We have a game now,” Thomas exclaims.
Thomas Wahlroos
”You just won’t die,” Patrik replies. A friend of Patrik’s comes by and Antonius says, ”I had him down to 5K and now he wants to make it a game.”
Whilst one might think this turn of events would tilt Patrik, he never stops his methodical and measured ways. All of his bets he pushes out in precise fashion, the chips in front of each other, layered and straight.
With a flop of 
A turn of
…and a river of 
Thomas Wahlroos has fired at every street and Patrik calls him down, almost half the chips on the table in the pot after the call on the river.
”Good call,” Thomas says. ”No pair.”
Patrik shows 
and takes down the pot.
A few hands later Thomas opens all-in with his Ace-Six offsuit and Patrik calls with an Ace-Four offsuit. The hand is chopped and Thomas is annoyed. ”You shouldn’t be upset,” Patrik says. ”Your hand only is about four percent better than mine; usually it’s a chop.”
”I don’t think you should’ve called with that hand, though,” Thomas says. ”It’s a bad call considering what my range is.”
”I don’t think so.”
The very next hand Patrik goes all-in against Thomas’ big blind. With $800 and $1,600 blinds, Thomas only has about another $14,000. Thomas folds, showing an Ace. ”See,” he says. ”Sometimes you fold the Ace-rag.”
”Not a good fold,” Patrik says but he doesn’t show his hand.
”It’s okay, I’m coming back and you can’t cold-deck me all night.”
Two hands later, back in Thomas’ big blind, Patrik folds from the button. ”Okay, that is sick,” Thomas says, revealing pocket Aces.
”That’s why I folded,” Patrik says.
”I hadn’t looked at my hand yet.”
”I knew you had Aces, though.”
Scary.
WAHLROOS HUNTING
Heads-Up Championship
Another half hour or so passes and Patrik has about a three to one chip lead. Thomas open-raises all-in from the button with an Ace-Seven and, after debating for a bit, Patrik calls with King-Nine, both of them offsuit.
The King-Nine-Three flop gives Patrik top two pair and a stranglehold on the match. Thomas raps the table, says, ”Good match,” and offers his hand in congratulation.
Patrik doesn’t accept it, saying, ”You aren’t out yet.”
He maybe shouldn’t've said anything, as the turn is an Ace and the river is a Seven, giving Thomas a bigger two pair and now they are tied in chips going into their break at the two hour mark of the event.
GIMME 10!
Craig ‘Red’ Thompson was doing push-ups against the rail. He needed a quick workout to reinvigorate the mind. Unfortunately we missed out on the shot - I went over to him and said,”Hey man, I’m going to have to ask you to give me ten more.”
”Are you serious?” he asked.
”Well, yeah, I think it’ll make a great picture,” I replied.
$5,000 HEADS UP CHAMPIONSHIP
In the heads up players take their chips into the next round, making for larger stacks at each step. So after three rounds those with 80,000 chips include…in no particular order…
Roland De Wolfe and Gavin Griffin are two players who recently put their heads up skills to good use winning major WPT and EPT Championships. Marc Karam discovered how it feels to miss out, coming second to Griffin in the EPT Grand Final.
Among the other notables…
Kevin O’Donnell
Matt Keikoan
Layne Flack
Eric Lynch
Kirk Morrison
Paul Wasicka
Sean McCabe
Shannon Shorr
Alex Brenes
Jared Davis
Alex Bolotin
Rob Hollink
Matthew Giannetti
Dan Schreiber
Carl Olson
Toto Leonidas
Chad Brown
Walter Schafer
Jason Glass
Aaron Been
Philippe Boucher
Daniel Alaei
Vanessa Selbst
Inevitably there were taxi’s for others, including Patrik Antonius after his clash with Thomas Wahlroos…
Jamie Gold
Gabriel Thaler
Todd Brunson
Amir Vahedi
Chip Jett
Antonio Esfandiari
David Daneshgar
Bill Gazes
Patrik Antonius
Justin Scott
Freddy Deeb
Lee Watkinson
Jani Sointula
David Pham
Doug Lee
Eric Froehlich
Bill Edler
Thomas ‘Thunder’ Keller
Michael Binger
Norm McDonald
Josh Arieh
Annie Duke
Barry Greenstein
George Danzer
Jared Okun
Mark Seif
Michael Mizrachi
Tex Barch
Doyle Brunson
Brian Wilson
Andy Black
John Shipley
Shannon Elizabeth
J.C. Tran
Evelyn Ng
Ram Vaswami
Soren Eriksen
Dan Harrington
William Chen
Pascal Perrault
Kenna James
Mike Matusow
Mikael Thuritz
Fabrice Soulier
Minh Ly
ALL Eliminated…
$2,000 SEVEN CARD STUD
The $2,000 Seven Card Stud has finished its first day. Tom Nguyen leads the pack, ahead of Cyndy Violette and a bunch of big names in the top ten…
Among other notables still in the field…
Mel Judah
Darrell Dicken
Mickey Seagle
Chip Reese
Howard Lederer
Brian Nadell
Allen Kessler
Bill Munley
Nick Frangos
Brad Berman
David Chiu
John Robertson
Matt Grapenthien
Barbara Lewis
Chris ”Jesus” Ferguson
Steve Vegas
Robert Labella
Duke Viveros
Alex Kravchenko
Alas, the list of fallen was long and distinguished…
Greg Raymer
Ralph Levine
Thor Hansen
Artie Cobb
Rick Schwartz
David Sklansky
Jim McManus
Barbara Enright
Michael Keiner
Robert Mizrachi
Esther Rossi
Keith Sexton
Alan Boston
Tony ‘G’ Guoga
Humberto Brenes
Captain Tom Franklin
ALL eliminated…
PLAY CONCLUDES
Two more events tomorrow, on top of the three that carry on from today – Event 33 is the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha with re-buys, starting at noon; then Event 34 at 5pm, the $3,000 Limit Hold’em.
Events from today restart somewhere in between those…
The Six-Handed final, headed by Hoyt Corkins, will start at 2pm Vegas time (10pm GMT); so too the Heads-Up Championship, albeit with fewer cameras.
Meanwhile the Seven Card Stud reconvenes slightly later at 3pm (11pm GMT).
Just another step towards the halfway mark in this year’s WSOP.
