The Poker Lab Rat

Phil Ivey does it again in Event #25 of the 2009 WSOP winning his 7th WSOP gold bracelet - and his second in ten days.

Ivey, was the eventual winner of Event 25 - $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8-or-better and is now tied for sixth on the all-time wins list.

The $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker Main Event is either one of the most prestigious tournaments in poker or an insufferable donkfest, depending on who’s doing the talking.

No matter which way you think, the speculation over who could take down the largest prize in poker or what kind of player might win runs rampant for months before the event kicks off. To this end, Bodog has released a series of prop bets covering this subject, giving action junkies the chance to put their money where their mouths are and wager on how different types of poker players will fare in the 2009 WSOP, which kicks off on July 3.

One of the biggest areas of speculation surrounding the Main Event always involves the performance of previous Main Event champions.

Will one of them repeat their feat and win again (Yes +2500)?
Or will one of them reach the final table (Yes +900)?

The champions listed as the favorites to last the longest this year are Phil Hellmuth, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Peter Eastgate at 9 to 2 with Chris Moneymaker and Jerry Yang not getting much respect at 16 to 1.

The performance of any poker pro is always of considerable interest and this year the Bodog oddsmakers have pegged Phil Ivey as the favorite to last the longest at 5 to 1. He is followed by Phil Hellmuth and Bodog poker pros David Williams and Justin Bonomo all at 6 to 1.

Female poker pros also get a lot of attention (as they should) and Bodog is asking if a woman will win the Main Event (Yes +1800), reach the final table (Yes +400, No -800) and which will last longer, the favorites being Jennifer Harman and Kathy Liebert at 5/1.

To view the full list of 2009 WSOP prop bets, head over to the Bodog Sportsbook and place your wagers now.

Here’s a short but sweet item from the team at Bodog Poker with their picks for the top 5 Poker Tournaments of the 2008 poker calendar.

In 2008, Peter Eastgate became the youngest WSOP Main Event champion in history. (Image courtesy of Bodog Poker)

1. WSOP Main Event is still the premier tournament of the year. It was the biggest prize pool of the year, and second biggest of all time. The final eight players all became millionaires, with a first-place prize of $9 million.

2. WSOP $50,000 HORSE Event should be the most highly regarded tournament because it’s the best professionals playing five different forms of poker. This year first place winner Scotty Nguyen won almost $2 million.

3. WPT World Championship $25,000 event at the Bellagio is the final event of the season. First place money of $3.3 million went to professional David Chiu.

4. The Aussie Millions main event is always a popular tournament. First-prize money of $1,250,000 AUS went to Howard Lederer.

5. The WSOP Europe has to make the list after the popularity it showed this year. John Juanda took home the £868,800 first-place prize.

>>For more on Bodog Poker and how they compare to otehr top ranking poker sites, check out the latest poker reviews for January 2009 at PokerLabRat.com.

Here’s a poker tip from another member of the “WSOP November Nine”, Scott Montgomery. (You can read “Nov9″ Kelly Kim’s latest poker tip here) 

One of the most important aspects of poker is establishing an individual image and using it to your advantage. By playing an extremely aggressive game, you’re likely to get paid off when you make a big hand because your opponents assume you have nothing; by consistently playing tight, you’ll get away with bluffs because they assume you’re strong. Either approach is fine, but it’s tremendously important to be aware of your table image so you can profit by playing against it.

Most of the time, players fall between these two extremes and that’s not a formula for success. One of the keys to succeeding in poker is consistently playing a different game than everyone else at the table. Developing a unique style and then varying your game allows you take advantage of opponents who don’t adjust their game.

Personally, I feel the style that works best is all-out aggression. One important reason for this is that it gives me a shot at becoming the chip leader and running away with the tournament. On the other hand, it can also lead to busting out early. For me, this is a risk worth taking; in the long run, I’m more interested in finishing tournaments in 1st place once in a while than just making the money most of the time.

Keep in mind that this type of aggression isn’t just a matter of bluffing to steal pots; my ultimate goal is to get paid off when I have a big hand. By getting involved in a lot of pots with mediocre hands while still keeping my stack close to even, I put myself in a position to profit from opponents who are convinced that I’m completely loose and taking shots with any two cards. I don’t have to be successful every time I bluff, just enough to stay alive and reinforce that wild image so that when I catch that hand, I’ll be sure to win a big pot.

Here’s a perfect illustration from Day Seven of the World Series of Poker Main Event – the day that determined who would reach the final table. I came into the day with about 4.5 million in chips, which was a little below the average. I knew that to make it to the final table and have a real shot at taking it down, I’d need about 15 million in chips. I had no intention of sneaking in short-stacked, so I knew I’d have to triple up over the course of the day.

I stayed pretty even throughout the whole day, except for two massive pots that were directly related. The first pot came early in the day, when I tried to bluff a player off a pot on the flop with nothing but Ace-high. I made this all-in move because I thought I could get the guy to fold. He ended up calling with top pair, but I spiked the Ace on the river to double up through him. I certainly got lucky there, but one other very important thing came out of it: I made the table aware that I wasn’t afraid to make a move for most or all of my stack.

Later in the day I was involved in a hand where I had the nuts – there were four spades on the board and I had the Ace of spades. My opponent had a smaller flush – with the nine of spades, I believe – but my image was so crazy that he called because he put me on another bluff. The earlier hand, when I pushed with the Ace-high, had to have been in the back of his mind. Poker players always want to call. They think: what hands can I possibly beat? This is magnified when you’re at a TV table, because no one wants to be that guy who laid down a good hand and lost a huge pot to a stone-cold bluff, especially when the whole nation is watching. Because of my loose image, I ended up winning an 18 million chip pot.

In a sense, it isn’t easy to play poker this aggressively. You have to be equipped to handle the emotional swings; you have to understand, deep down, that sometimes you’re going to lose huge pots – maybe even your whole stack – on a bluff. When it happens, you can’t collapse. You have to walk into the next tournament willing to make that same play again, because most of the time it will work. You can never be afraid at the table or preoccupied with the past. To play this aggressively, you have to believe that it’s the right way. If you can manage this, you’re going to be successful in the long run.

With $1.3 Million in Career Tournament Winnings including 4 WSOP Cash Finishes to date Scott Montgomery plays online at Full Tilt Poker. Join him at a table some day soon!

Here’s Scott’s “plan” for the WSOP 2008 Main Table:

“I’m going to win; I planned on winning from day one. I plan on playing all the tournaments I can between now and then. I don’t know how much research you can really do, if I can get some pre-information I wouldn’t turn it down. If I take a vacation, I will go to Monte Carlo and play some poker.”

>>FullTiltPoker Room Review & Rating

The final nine players to contest the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event have been found - and they will start playing the final table … in … in .. 117 days time?!

Chip count :
Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000
Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000
Scott Montgomery - 19,690,000
Peter Eastgate - 18,375,000
Ylon Schwartz - 12,525,000
Darus Suharto - 12,520,000
David ‘Chino’ Rheem - 10,230,000
Craig Marquis - 10,210,000
Kelly Kim - 2,620,000

No names, no stars, no angle, but then ESPN and the poker press have 117 days to build this into something other than a story about 9 nobodies playing for the  first prize of $9.1m …

See you on November 9th 2008.

Day five of the 2008 Main event at the World Series of Poker is now in the books, and 110 players were eliminated today, taking the field down to just 79 players.

Some of the biggest names were eliminated today with Gus Hansen, Allen Cunningham and Hoyt Corkins all taking the long walk after coming so close to the hugely awaited final table.

As is becoming commonplace with the main event - the leaderboard is dominated by players with little previous TV exposure :

Mark Ketteringham: 5,700,000
Andrew Brokos: 4,100,000
Tiffany Michelle: 3,800,000
Jamal Kunbuz: 3,500,000
Albert Kim: 3,400,000
Nikolay Losev: 3,400,000
Alfred Fernandez: 3,100,000
Steve Lade: 3,000,000
Judet Cristian: 2,900,000
Aaron Gordon: 2,900,000

Average Stack: 1,732,658

But there are still a couple of well known publicity seekers as Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow in the hunt for the final table.

There are just 189 players left after day four of the WSOP and 11 time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth is amongst them - with around 500,000 chips - slightly lower than the tournament average for 725,000.

Johnny Chan was bidding to win his 11th bracelet in this event as well, but he busted out earlier in the day when his A7 came up against pocket 8’s and Chan could not improve his hand with the board.

Top five leaders :
Jeremy Joseph: 3,100,000
Cristian Dragomir: 2,065,000
David Rheem: 2,000,000
Nikolay Losev: 1,800,000
Andrew Rosskamm: 1,745,000

The field has three more days to whittle the 189 players down to the final nine players who will then contest the final table … in November ?! 

The World Series of Poker Main Event began one week ago, but today was the first time every player has been seated in the same room, at the same time.

The field started with 6,844 players and it took four Day 1’s (a-d), two Day 2, and a one day break in between to finally reduce the field to a size that it could play togther.

Day 3 began with 1,307 players, and 666 will earn a payout. The lowest of which is $21,230 (for 604th to 666th) while the winner wil ltake home $9.1 million dollars.

Notables who weren’t able to survive the afternoon session of Day 3 included Chris Moneymaker, Patrik Antonius, Jeff Williams, Darrel Dicken, Scott Clements and Matt Glantz.

Day 1b of the main event is now complete after 1,157 players started and whittled down to 621 players who would come back for Day 2.

There were plenty of high profile eliminations with former champions Greg Reymer, and Jamie Gold going early and Daniel Negreanu, Lee Watkinson, Ted Forrest, Kenny Tran and Irish player Andy Black also all taking the long lonely walk of elimination.

Leading the way is Ben Sarnoff who built his stack to 177,000. Just behind Sarnoff is Brian Schaedlich with 156,000. He qualified via a $130 satellite at Mountaineer Race Track in West Virginia. This is Schaedlich’s first time in Las Vegas.

Robert Mizrachi managed to build his stack to 131,000 and finds himself in fourth spot. Two spots behind him is Canadian Marc Karam with 113,000. 2008 WSOP Player-of-the-Year Erick Lindgren found himself at the feature table for the entire day and wound up in the top 20 in chips with 93,325.

The 616 players who survived the day will return on Tuesday at Noon PT and combine with the 636 players left from Day 1a action. Mark Garner fron Day 1a is still the current overall chip leader with 194,900.

It has begun!

The “main event” of the WSOP - the World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold’em (Event 54) started on Thursday, as Day 1A got underway. It’s known as “1A” because there are so many potential entrants that the organisers have split the first day into FOUR seperate sections.

So Day 1a finished and Mark Garner leads the way with 194,900. Garner, who finished 25th in 2006, made a run late in the day to finish on top.

Although the organisers had allowed for up to 3,000 entrants each day only 1,297 players started playing today and by the end only 636 of those remained.

One TV personality who lasted the day was celebrities former sitcom star Ray Romano who finished up t with 61,025 in chips and was happy with his play.

Romano said “I played tight as all hell and I got a couple of hands and I made a little bit of money, but I could have made more money. I fell asleep reading Doyle Brunson’s book last night.”

You can buy a copy of Doyle Brunson’s Super Series at the PokerLabrat.com Amazon Poker book page … and check out which other books the poker pro’s recommend too …