Watching the World Series of Poker Europe

The high-stakes poker world is centered on London at the moment, with most of the top name players in town for some big buy-in multi-day tournaments. I've been down to the Casino at the Empire Leicester Square a few times this week to watch the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main Event, a £10000 buy-in no-limit holdem tournament with a star-studded field of 334 players.

The Casino at the Empire normally has a small poker room of half a dozen tables in a side room to the main casino, hosting £1/£2 cash games and £25 crapshoot afternoon tourneys, but for two weeks in Sept/Oct the entire casino is transformed into a high-stakes tourney poker venue, complete with ESPN TV crews and media a plenty.

Main Event tournaments are structured to allow the skill factor to really shine through. Deep stacks (30,000 starting chips). Long levels (90 minutes) with small increments in blinds. Determined players can play small pot poker and gradually chip up over the five days without having to take big gambles for their entire stack.

I went along for a few hours on Day 1b, Day 4, and to see the final four play down to a winner on Day 5. On the days where I wasn't able to get to Leicester Square I followed the progress of the tournament on the live blog at pokernews.com and by checking the regularly updated twitter posts of some of the big name players like 2007 WSOPE winner Annette Obrestad, Kid Poker Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Joe Sebok, and Brandon Cantu.

Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan busted early on Day 1. They both have a habit of taking gambles early in tournaments in an attempt to build up a big stack or bust and return to the nose-bleed cash games online. Daniel Negreanu and Annette Obrestad played solid small-pot poker on the TV feature table, building up their stacks to 82450 and 51950 respectively by the end of the day.

On Day 2 and 3, internet MTT sensation Yevgeniy Timoshenko and PLO tournament star Jason Mercier built up massive stacks playing super aggressive poker. Yevgeniy Timoshenko had won over $1.5 million in the World Championship of Online Poker Main Event barely a week ago, and $2.1 million in the $25000 WPT Championship Event in April. Amazing results for a 21 year old!

Day 3 concluded with the burst of the money bubble, the honour going to 2007 runner-up John Tabatabai holding pocket Aces against Peter Goulds pocket sevens. All-in before the flop. Seven on the flop. Ouch!

36 players came back on Day 4 to play down to the final nine, amongst them California long-time pro Men Nguyen, CardPlayer magazine owner Barry Shulman, November Niners James Akenhead and Antoine Saout, Daniel Negreanu, UK poker identities Dave 'DevilFish' Ulliott and Ram Vaswani, online $2000/$4000 limit holdem phenom Matt Hawrilenko, Jason Mercier, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, and the legendary Doyle Brunson.

Nursing a short stack overnight, DevilFish was out in the first few minutes of the day. Yevgeniy Timoshenko floundered on a very very aggressive table (I saw one player re-raise all-in with Q6cc on a rag board only to get called by trip threes). Jason Mercier continued to build a massive massive stack. Daniel Negreanu slowly but surely chipped up, boosted at one point when he got Men Nguyen to commit all his chips with two pair against Daniel's trips. Doyle busted in 17th place. Eric Liu was the final table bubble boy. Just after midnight, the final nine had been decided. Twelve hour rest and they would be back at noon to play it out for the title.

In 2008 John Juanda won the title in an epic final table that ran for 22 hours. 2009's final table table was looking to match that with no player busting for the first five hours. The difference between 9th place prize money and 1st place prize money was £735,000, so the play was initially very cautious. Then in Level 27 as three short stacks were approaching ten to fifteen big blinds, the all-ins started to get called, and five players were knocked out in quick succession, four of them at the hands of Daniel Negreanu.

I arrived at the Casino at the Empire at about 9:00pm on Day Five, just after the dinner break. The remaining players Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Praz Bansi, and Barry Shulman were all deep stacked, with Praz Bansi holding a very slight chip lead over Daniel Negreanu.

Jason Mercier made a big re-raise pre-flop and Daniel called for more than 50% of his stack with 99. Jason's 77 didn't hold up, and we were down to three.

Daniel and Praz were chipping away at Barry Shulman, and he eventually pushed with JT on the button for about 14 big blinds, only to get called by Daniel Negreanu with AQ. Ten on the flop. Ten on the turn. Jack on the river. Jeez.

Praz Bansi then made a big re-raise on a Kigh high flop with K8. Barry Shulman called with KJ, which held up, leaving Bansi crippled. He was knocked by Daniel a few hands later when he pushed with Q2 and was called by AQ which held up.

12:30am and we're down to heads up with Daniel Negreanu hold a 60/40 chip lead against Barry Shulman. Negreanu's guaranteed second place put him on the top of the all-time poker tournament earnings list, a position that while well earned, is very likely to be superseded by Phil Ivey next month at the final table of the WSOP Main Event.

An hour and a half into heads up play, Negreanu raised on the button, Shulman called. On a King high flop with two hearts, Shulman bet out, and Negreanu announced All-in. Shulman called instantly with an Ace high flush draw. Negreanu had pocket Aces and was a 65% favourite to win the tournament. Alas a heart came on the turn and Barry took a commanding chip lead.

Daniel clawed back over a couple of hours, re-raising all-in numerous times, forcing Barry to fold, and eventually regaining the chip lead.

Then, 17 hours into the final table, on a flop of 58J with two diamonds, Shulman bet out, Daniel raised, the Barry announced all-in. Daniel was amused and chatted with the rail, trying to figure out whether to call. He eventually called with QJ suspecting Barry might be on a flush draw again. Alas, Barry had pocket Aces this time. Daniel had five outs, plus a back-door flush draw. Turn .... Jack!! The crowd roared. Daniel was now 95% to take down the tournament. River .... Ace!! Wow! Barry spikes a two-outer and takes a monster chip lead.

A few hands later, all the money goes in pre-flop. Daniel's pocket Fours is no much for Barry's pocket Tens. Barry Shulman wins the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, and a dejected Daniel Negreanu almost cries during the post tournament interview.

It's 5:30am, and time to go home.

Phil Ivey in the November Nine

Phil Ivey is in amazing form.

After winning two bracelets already at the 2009 WSOP, he is now a member of the November Nine, having survived a field of 6494 to make the final table of the $10,000 entry fee 2009 WSOP Main Event.

The tournament resumes on November 7th. The ESPN coverage should be awesome.

Phil Ivey wins seventh WSOP Bracelet

Phil Ivey has won another bracelet, his second of the 2009 WSOP, in Event 25 - $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8-or-better, besting a field of 376 with a final table that included Chad Brown, Blair Rodman, Dutch Boyd, Jon (PearlJammer) Turner and Carlos Mortensen. First place prize money was $220,538 (plus, no doubt, a few more million in bracelet bets).

There are some particular pros that are really shining in this year's WSOP. Phil Ivey has won two bracelets. Brock Parker (a.k.a. t_soprano online) has won two bracelets, including a thrilling heads up victory against Daniel Negreanu in Event 14 - $2,500 Six-handed Limit Hold'em. Ville Wahlbeck, winner of the much coveted Event 12 - $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event (HORSE + Deuce to Seven Triple Draw + PLO + NLHE) also finished in the money in the first four $10,000 World Championship events 2nd place in the No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw and 3rd place in Seven Card Stud.

In the UK, selected final tables are being broadcast live on PKR.com

Phil Ivey wins sixth Bracelet ... and millions of dollars in side bets

Now here's a poker game one doesn't get to play very often: No-Limit Deuce to Seven Single Draw ... "considered by many to be the most skillful game of the various poker disciplines."

In Event 8 of the 2009 WSOP Phil Ivey bested a field of 147 to win a mere $96,361 in prize money, plus several million dollars in Bracelet bets. The heads up match lasted about three and a half hours, with the lead going back and forth several times. Phil Ivey would consistently chip away at his opponent John Monnette, making well-timed raises and some very very good marginal calls. As the blinds increased, there were some big swings towards the end. John Monnette doubled up, then doubled up again to take the chip. Phil Ivey quickly doubled up to regain the chip lead. Then all the money went into the pot in a raise, re-raise, all-in pre-draw hand. "Ivey had 7-6-4-2, while Monnette held 9-7-5-2. John Monnette showed his card first, revealing another seven, meaning that he was drawing dead. Phil Ivey turned over the five for the winning hand and his sixth WSOP gold bracelet, his first since 2005."

I was fortunate enough to watch some of the heads up match live on bluffmagazine.com. Deuce to Seven is one of the few poker games that makes sense when you watch it live (i.e. without hole card cameras) as there is no flop, and you can focus on the players, their betting patterns, and their tells, without having to worry too much about their hole cards.

Update (07 June): Some great photos of the final table are up on PokerRoad.

Poker tourism

Up at 5:30am Saturday morning, train to the airport, check in to an 8:15am flight to Melbourne. Familiar faces everywhere. 56 of Sydney's best and/or luckiest poker players on their way to Crown Casino to play in an $85,000 tournament. We've all won our weekend in Melbourne as prizes in a series of satellite tourneys in Sydney pubs over the past few weeks. The waiting lounge is a buzz with stories of flops, turns, raises, donkeys, and bad beats.

I chat to a guy that I tried to knock out of the satellite tournament. He beat me in that hand, but I managed to claw my way back, and scrape through with only three big blinds left on the bubble.

On arrival at Melbourne airport we're greeted by a Crown Casino host, and shown to our coach that will take us to the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Not quite the life of the high roller, but the first time a casino host has greeted me at the airport nonetheless ;-)

Over 200 local Melbourne players register for the tournament, and by the time the tournament is underway we have 284 players and a huge $85,000 prize pool. I'm seated at one of the outer tables. The guy to my immediate left is a local player, Antonio Casale, who has apparently played in the Crown Poker room every day for eons, and had cashed for $300,000 in this year's Aussie Millions poker tournament. Two seats to his left is a Sydney player, Patrick Fletcher, who had finished 2nd in a tournament at Star City the night before for a cool $31,000. No luck on the first table, I call a couple of raises but fold both times on the flop. On one hand everyone folds to me in the big blind. I look down at pocket kings, the only time I picked up a pocket pair greater than eights in the entire tournament (and even when I did get the pocket eights I had to fold pre-flop because of the action).

After a couple of hours I get moved to the main table, which is set up with overhead cameras and a rail with a small but dedicated crowd. Despite the deep starting stack, the tournament has an aggressive structure. I push all-in a few times without getting any callers. The blinds continue to increase and I'm constantly short-stacked. People are dropping like flies, and before I even realise it, we're down to about 45 players remaining, with the top 30 making the prize money. I'm still short-stacked. A player limps. I stare him down, then re-raise all-in with only A7. He reluctantly calls with K9. I knew he was weak, but I didn't think he'd call my raise. My Ace high hand holds up and I've now got a few chips to play with.

The blinds continue to increase. With 33 players remaining, I've got pocket sevens in mid-position. The blinds are 6000 / 12000 with a 1000 ante. We're playing eight-handed, so there's 26000 in the pot before any action. I raise all-in with only 27,000. The action folds to the big blind. He's only got about 30,000 remaining. It's going to cost him half his stack to call, but he's getting better than 4 to 1 on his money if he makes the call. He thinks for ages, and eventually folds. I've now got 53,000 and it's enough to make it to the money bubble.

With the incredibly aggressive blind structure, it's anyone's game. I raise/fold my way to the final fifteen. The blinds are now at 15000/30000 with a 3000 ante and the average stack is about 190,000. After posting my big blind and my ante I have 67000 remaining. A guy in early position min-raises to 60000. It folds to me and I have QJ. There's so much money in the pot, the prize structure is the same for 11th through to 20th, so I need to accumulate chips to make it to the final table. I decide to just call, with the intention of then betting out on the flop. Depending on how he plays, and how the flop comes out, there's a small chance he might fold on the flop. The flop comes out Q and two lower cards. Bingo. Great outcome for me! I bet my remaining 37000 into the 141000 chip pot. The guy is agonised, but calls with pocket 3s. "I had to call, there's so much in the pot" "Yeah, I know" The turn is meaningless. I'm now a 95% chance to win the pot, but a 3 falls on the river and I'm out in 15th place for a little over $1000. I always seem to get sucked out on at Crown ;-)

He ends up winning the entire tournament, taking home the trophy and over $17,000 ;-)

Our NSW contingent did very well, with five people making it to the final table, including 2nd, 3rd, and 5th place.