The Poker Lab Rat

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 …

Here’s an interesting opinion piece off the Bodog Beat News Ticker:

It is now a mere 2 days until the main event of the WSOP begins.

Established in 1968, it was originally little more than a home game as the players had to receive the nod before they could attend. Clearly this was against the spirit of poker. Benny Binion, casino owner and card sharp, hauled it to over to Binion’s Horseshoe and started the process that caused it to evolve to the current format.

In 1971, there were only 6 entrants and the first prize was a mere $30,000. In 2006, swelled by online qualifiers, the tournament saw 8,773 hopefuls contribute a $10,000 entry fee which ultimately handed Jamie Gold a 12m dollar pay day.

It is big business and it appeals to a wide audience, which presumably explains why the event attracts a wide range of sponsors, including a Pepsi branded energy drink and a medicine to cure erectile dysfunction. (Intriguingly, it was originally claimed that Coca-Cola had a stiffening effect on its male drinkers so maybe the cola wars are now being fought under cover.)

With so much money on the table, it was inevitable that it would be subject to corporate take-over and attract the interests of TV.

In 2004, Harrah’s Entertainment bought The Horseshoe and the WSOP brands. In 2005, the company moved the events to Harrah’s Casino and they, in their ultimate wisdom, have decided to plonk the start date for this year’s final tournament on July 3.

However, it is the latest act of tinkering that is causing the greatest consternation: on July 14, the field will be reduced to 9 players but they will have to wait 114 days until they resume the action.

Between July 14 and November 9, ESPN will air tapes of the action up to the final table and then will cover the action live.

In my humble opinion it is simply unacceptable.

Poker has a history of marathon one-to-one battles in which the participants gradually reveal their strengths and weaknesses. The original point of the contest was to be the last man standing after a battle of endurance and mental strength. Now, with the players experiencing such a huge gap, they will be able to receive coaching or watch tapes of their opponents. No one will return to the game playing in the same style they were using in July.

The lucky, inexperienced punter has the potential to return as a Wikiplayer, having absorbed comment from a variety of sources and having had his kinks ironed out. However, it favours the established pros and they know it: Daniel Negreanu, has said:”You’re going to see some really kind of more sophisticated play [with a] different dynamic.”

If you need a translator, what he actually said is: TV has been good to me and I’m not going to stir controversy by criticising a ludicrous decision. It is possible that it will attract more people to poker but it still makes little sense as a scheduling decision. The majority of ESPN’s poker viewers have far more distractions for their couch time in November: the NFL, NBA and NHL.

In July, even the most ardent of baseball fans can appreciate a respite to the near constant thwacking of its season and poker offers the thrill of risk that is not replicated on the golf course. If you are still in any doubt that is a terrible decision, consider the giant of the latter sport, Tiger Woods.

He plays events over four consecutive days and, typically, triumphs over the psychological and environmental conditions. He combines tremendous skill with sublime intuition but also displays great mental toughness and it gives him a great edge over his opponents.

If the final round were subject to a hiatus, would it not slightly dent your perception of a truly magnificent champion?

We will definitely be keeping you posted with news, but in the meantime play poker online with Bodog Poker.

For more info on popular US-friendly online poker site Bodog Poker check out the latest Bodog Poker review here at PokerLabRat.com.

Thuan “Scotty” Nguyen, the man best-known for the use of the word “baby” in nearly every other sentence, won the prestigious $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship in the early hours of Monday morning, after a titantic final table.

The first five players were eliminated in a little less than six hours – the final two eliminations didn’t come for another five hours and 45 minutes. In that time the three players combined to play 178 hands.

Erick Lindgren eventually finished in 3rd place winning $781,440 as he was eliminated by Nguyen in a Stud hand sometime early on Monday morning around 4:30am.

That left Michael De Michelle and Nguyen in a heads-up contest that lasted only about 40 minutes before Nguyen won a stud-8 hand to claim the bracelet, the Chip Reese memorial trophy and $1,989,120 in first place prize money.

HONOUR ROLL - THE LAST 16
————————————
1. Scotty Nguyen $1,989,120
2. Mike DeMichele $1,243,200
3. Erick Lindgren $781,440
4. Matt Glantz $568,320
5. Lyle Berman $444,000
6. Barry Greenstein $355,200
7. Huck Seed $284,160
8. Patrick Bueno $230,880
9. Ralph Perry $177,600
10. Raymond Davis $177,600
11. David Bach $159,840
12. Phil Ivey $159,840
13. Daniel Negreanu $142,080
14. Joseph Michael $142,080
15. Andrew Bloch $124,320
16. Doyle Brunson $124,320

Dario Minieri won his first World Series of Poker bracelet and $528,418 on Wednesday after his pocket queens held up to eliminate his final opponent in one of the wildest final tables of the 2008 WSOP.

Minieri won Event #31 ($2,500 No Limit Hold ‘em/Six Handed) after coming into the 6-handed final table as the big stack and dominated early on winning 21 of the first 50 pots.

Stuart Marshak, John O’Shea and Kevin Song were all eliminated during this early period. Minieri had opened up a massive chip lead when play reached three handed and it looked like the his two opponents, Seth Fischer and Justin Filtz, might be playing for second place.

But Fischer got a couple of big pot suck-outs to double up against Minieri and then eliminate Filtz to get into heads-up play at relatively even chip stacks.

Around 30 minutes into heads-up Fischer raised from the button with chip lead and Minieri moved all-in. Fischer called instantly and turned over pocket kings, while Minieri turned over 3-4 of spades, stood up and put on his coat, expecting the hand to be his last.

The flop came 2-8-J with two spades, giving Minieri a flush draw and pulling the crowd to the edge of their seats. The turn was the four of diamonds, giving Minieri even more outs, and the river was another four, sending the pot to Minieri.

Minieri picked up queens the next hand to increase his chip lead and the match was all over a few hands later when Fischer moved all-in pre-flop with K-10 and was called by Minieri, who once again held pocket queens.

The ladies held and Minieri had his his first WSOP bracelet and $528,418 in cash while
Fischer collected $330,519 for second.

—–

So remember - all you need to do to win a bracelet is to bust KK with a flush draw and then get the dealer to hand you pocket Queens often - simple huh?

Daniel Negreanu won a fourth WSOP bracelet and $205K by claiming all the chips in Event #20 the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event. (479 entries)

Unlike some of the earlier events, this final table was full of players who had yet to win a bracelet (plus Negreanu) so the 33-year old Canadian was a solid favourite when everyone sat down.

The play was fairly winning with Negreanu and David Baker trading shots, and eventually it got down to three handed action with these two and Ugur Marangoz.

When three handed play got underway Baker began to struggle, taking several hits from Marangoz and even having his river bluff picked off by Negreanu with nothing better than Ace-high. A few hands later Negreanu rivered a gutshot straight against Baker, sending him out in 3rd place.

Heads-up play began with Negreanu taking a monster pot off Marangoz when he flopped a flush and got Marangoz to four-bet the turn and call another bet on the river. The pot all but devastated Marangoz’s stack.

A few hands later Negreanu raised all-in on a board of 5-K-5-Q-3. Marangoz threw in his few remaining chips and Negreanu showed 9-5 for three-of-a-kind. Marangoz couldn’t beat it and was eliminated in 2nd place (winning $126K).

Negreanu shook his opponents’ hand then thanked the fans for staying to watch, saying that having “home team advantage” helped him stay positive when he was short stacked during the middle stages of the day.  

It might have drawn just 85 players and it might be the little known ”$5,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ rebuys” - but it’s a bracelet  - and after some quality action it’s clamped around the wrist of Mike “The Mouth” Matusow.

I have no idea how 2-7 Draw Lowball is played but the rebuys option meant that there were 272 rebuys and the final table showed that deep pockets were needed to play this game as it consisted of Erick Lindgren, Jeffrey Lisandro, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Tom Schneider, Tony G and David Benyamine. 

Benyamine, Tony G and Schneider went out first and then Lindgren, looking for his second WSOP bracelet of the week, was the next to go after watching his chip lead deteriorate and getting knocked out by Matusow.

With the table three-handed Lisandro won several big pots to take a big chip lead, with 2 million chips vs. Greenstein’s 1.1 million and Matusow’s 0.4m, but with plenty of doubling up the chip lead changed hands several times.

The final three players traded chips back and forth for several hours until Greenstein finally pushed all-in for his last five big blinds and was knocked by Lisandro. Greestein collected $225,552 for 3rd place.

The heads-up match between Lisandro and Matusow started with an all-in showdown on the first hand, much to the delight of the huge audience surrounding the final table. Matusow continued to battle back and won several consecutive pots to draw the chip count close to even.

Matusow continued to steamroll Lisandro’s once robust stack, reducing the Australian-born pro to less than ten big blinds. Lisandro mounted one more comeback with another double up, but Matusow caught another streak of pat hands and backed Lisandro into a corner.

On the final hand Matusow raised all-in with Q-8-7-4-3 and Lisandro called with 9-6-5-3. Lisandro drew one card and after some thought Matusow decided to stay with his queen low.

Lisandro needed a card lower than a queen that didn’t pair his hand, but when he slowly lifted his card and revealed a queen, his game was over and Matusow ran and embraced his supporters, jumping and hollering as the crowd applauded his bracelet winning achievement.

Matusow banked $537,862 and his third WSOP bracelet, his first since the 2002 WSOP. Lisandro finished second for $347,004.

It looks like we will have another big name World Series of Poker final table in Event #18 as we’ve got the last 7 players set with some huge names.

Event #18 is the (.. take deep breath ..) $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ReBuys tournament - and as you might expect with such a specialist poker game this tourney only attracted a starting field of 85 players.

But despite the small field the payouts should be good as a number of players have been repeatedly rebuying (chasing a “cheap” WSOP bracelet?) and the 85 players have put in a total of $1.735m meaning an “average” spend of over $20,000 each !!

Phil Ivey was rebuying a lot yesterday and Lindgren said ”I have to finish above ninth to make any money on this tournament”. As 9th place pays $34,700 it means that Lindgren is in for at least seven buy-ins.

Still - all that splashed cash means that ehe final table reads well … with the players holding a combined eight WSOP bracelets, seven WPT titles, and over $26 million in career earnings.

Erick Lindgren — 1,104,000 chips
Barry Greenstein - 541,000 
Mike Matusow —– 520,000 
Jeffrey Lisandro - 461,000 
David Benyamine — 410,000 
Tony ‘G’ Guoga — 394,000 
Tom Schneider —- 162,000

Early Thursday morning at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino Erick Lindgren he won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in Event #4 ($5,000 Mixed Hold’em) after coming close many times before.

After a long headsup battle with Justin Bonomo, Lindgren finally claimed all the chips and the coveted bracelet with a killer hand.

Lindgren’s Ah 2d pocket cards completed a straight after a flop of 10c 5c 3h and the turn was 4h - and it was E-Dog’s check/call on the turn despite making the wheel that fooled Bonomo.

The river was the 8h and Bonomo bet out at the pot. Lindgren re-raised and Bonomo sensing weakness on the turn quickly moved all-in and after Lindgren called Bonomo turned over 5s 4s for two pair.

Lindgren flipped over his Ah 2d, leaned over and saw that he’d finally claimed the title and gave a quick pump of the fist.

FINAL TABLE RESULTS FOR EVENT #4

1. Erick Lindgren $374,505
2. Justin Bonomo $230,159
3. Andrew Robl $144,337
4. Roland De Wolfe $117,030 
5. David Rheem $93,624
6. Howard Lederer $74,119
7. David Williams $58,515
8. Pat Pezzin $46,812
9. Isaac Haxton $35,109

After nearly 12 hours Day 2 of the $5,000 Mixed Hold’em event finally completed and we’ve reached another final table packed full of star power.

Day 1 reduced the 332 starters to 91, and day 2 has reduced the contenders to the final 9.

Only the top 36 players cash in this event and so players like Hoyt Corkins, Berry Johnston, David Benyamine and Marcel Luske made it deep into day two but still busted out before the money bubble.

However, the 9 survivors will be playing for a $375,000 first prize and there are some big player names and some popular poker rooms represented.

Bodog spokesmen David Williams and Justin Bonomo will sit down and face off against Full Tilt’s Erick Lindgren, Howard Lederer and Roland de Wolfe, along with unattached players Isaac Haxton, David Rheem, Andrew Robl and Pat Pezzin. (hint - get some sponsors guys).

Chip Counts going into the final table :
885,000 David Rheem
678,500 David Williams
517,500 Justin Bonomo
345,000 Erick Lindgren
324,500 Howard Lederer
194,000 Roland de Wolfe
162,000 Andrew Robl
115,500 Isaac Haxton
108,500 Pat Pezzin

The final table will start at 3pm Pacific time.

Serbian born, Canadian raised Nenad Medic grabbed the first bracelet of the 2008 WSOP season after eliminating day one chip leader Andy Bloch in heads up play.

Medic considers himself a “cash player” mostly but after picking up nearly $800,000 here he as tournamnet earnings of over $3,6 million - not bad for a cash player.

In 2006, Medic won the World Poker Tour’s World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, while in 2007, he managed a 3rd place finish in the same event, leaving little doubt he’s one of poker’s true masters.

Final table placings and payouts for Event #1 :

1. Nenad Medic ——- $794,112
2. Andrew Bloch —– $488,048
3. Kathy Liebert — $306,064
4. Mike Sexton ——- $248,160
5. Amit Makhija —— $198,528
6. Chris Bell ———- $157,168
7. Patrik Antonius $124,080
8. Mike Sowers ———- $99,264
9. Phil Laak —————- $74,448