WSOP Main Event 2005 (Spoilers)

[Comey]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wednesday

The way I read that, ESPN thought that the table was compelling enough that, if it had been going to stay together, they would have turned it into the feature table. That is, they don't have a say in who winds up together at a table, but they have control over which table they decide to feature.

Is there an echo?

[Mr. Wednesday]

I should have read a little more carefully. I misread your conclusion.

[Comey]

That's fine. I'm paranoid that nobody ever reads anything I write, so I had to respond.

[Huckleberry]

Interesting story on Raymer. If that guy does mess with his daughter and Raymer kills him, I'd like to be on the jury.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

Interesting story on Raymer. If that guy does mess with his daughter and Raymer kills him, I'd like to be on the jury.

If he wore the glasses at any point during the trial, I'd convict him in a second.

[QuikSand]

One of the chip leaders coming into today lives just a few miles away from me:

Steve Danaman Severn, MD $2,143,000 118 3


I don't recognize the name, but there are a number of local players whom I have met and played with without really getting to know them. It's certainly possible that this guy is among them. You can't swing a dead cat in my local game without smacking a guy who goes by "Steve."

If he's on TV and is wearing a "Circle Jerks" baseball cap, then I know who he is for sure.

[timmynausea]

As in the punk band?

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by timmynausea

As in the punk band?

Yes.

[MJ4H]

Good start for Raymer today.

back over a million after winning a 400k pot with QQ vs 99

[Suicane75]

Man, ESPN should really show this live. This is depressing.

[SirFozzie]

Card Player will be doing live audio of the final table, at least.. and I know PokerTrails will be doing a hand by hand transcription (no cameras of course)

Live Poker's coming to Fox again, as they will be airing the final table of a poker tournament live coming up in a month or so (forget the name, but it will be the first final table live in Las Vegas (the last one was at Turning Stone)

[SirFozzie]

And if the gamble bug gets any bigger.. we WILL have a Gambling Network or a Poker Network

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Card Player will be doing live audio of the final table, at least..

Link to the site?

[SirFozzie]

www.cardplayer.com

[MJ4H]

The preflop details are unclear, but there were some bets and possibly a raise, when Greg Raymer went all in. It was folded around to Tiffany Williamson, who went into deep thought for many minutes to contemplate the call. Word slowly spread around the room that Greg Raymer was all in at the TV table, and the crowd at the ESPN stage quickly grew to overflow capacity. The buzz in the air was spine-tingling.


Tiffany Williamson was playing with her chips, and several times she would move a stack around, and those of us in the press thought she had called. As a relative rookie, she may not be familiar with the rules about chip movement, because there appeared to be forward motion. But nobody called it on her.


The media was talking about the hand, wondering what she was on, and everyone predicted a fold. She was faced with a similar big call earlier today, and after thinking for about ten minutes, she folded that hand.


This time, she calls.


Greg Raymer casually flips over pocket kings (Kc-Kd), and Tiffany Williamson shows Ac-Jd. The crowd isstunned, expecting her to have a stronger hand than that. But she does have an ace, and Raymer hasn't won the hand yet. Tension at the ESPN stage is at its highest level of the tournament so far. Two of the biggest crowd favorites are clashing head-to-head in a huge pot.


The flop is slowly revealed (almost card by card) to be 6s-6d-2d, and the crowd lets out a tentative sigh, unclear who they are rooting for here. The turn card is the 4c, and Williamson has to catch an ace on the last card to eliminate the defending World Series champion.


The river card is the 9c.


Greg Raymer has doubled up through Tiffany Williamson, and the cheers from the crowd imply they'd rather see a repeat champion than another "tournament rookie coming out of nowhere" story. Regardless, Tiffany Williamson still has enough chips to be comfortable.

[larrymcg421]

Yeah that was a big hand. Tiffany has been playing fast and loose, completely on tilt, all day. She has been lucky enough to build a big stack, allowing her to do that. She has since doubled up after that hand.

[larrymcg421]

I have a new favorite player in the tourney, and he's an Irishman too!

Bing Wang was apparently confused following the last level of play. The break was scheduled to be 30 minutes, but Wang thought that it was a longer break for dinner. An easy mistake to make, considering a dinner break was announced, but for a different event also going on in the Amazon room. Wang has not returned to his seat and the tournament directors have made the decision to blind him off until he returns. The player sitting two spots to his right, Andy Black doesn't think that is fair. As a result, Black has asked the tournament directors to stop play until he returns. The ruling stands and Wang's chips are being blinded off. In an effort to help Wang out, Black is stalling and taking a very long time to do anything. Andy Black is visibly upset with what is taking place, and it appears that he is shedding a few tears.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Yeah that was a big hand. Tiffany has been playing fast and loose, completely on tilt, all day. She has been lucky enough to build a big stack, allowing her to do that. She has since doubled up after that hand.

i dont think shes been on tilt. i just think she's not very good. she has badly misplayed a large number of hands.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

I have a new favorite player in the tourney, and he's an Irishman too!

I respect the effort... but crying over the situation?

[larrymcg421]

Well I think the nerves are a little high right now. Many of these people playing for hgiher stakes than they've ever dreamed of. Crying may some weird, but I think he was extremely upset that a shortstacked guy was getting screwed over an honest mistake.

[larrymcg421]

Cardplayer reporting Juanda is out.

[SirFozzie]

Early Night, they are now down to 27, and 12:40 AM Eastern, Mike Matusow knocked out Gregory Rice to finish play for the day.

[Lathum]

I want a Raymer-Matusow final so bad.

[k0ruptr]

this has been a great world series so far i must say.

[henry296]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

One of the chip leaders coming into today lives just a few miles away from me:

Steve Danaman Severn, MD $2,143,000 118 3


I don't recognize the name, but there are a number of local players whom I have met and played with without really getting to know them. It's certainly possible that this guy is among them. You can't swing a dead cat in my local game without smacking a guy who goes by "Steve."

If he's on TV and is wearing a "Circle Jerks" baseball cap, then I know who he is for sure.

There is an article on the Baltimore Sun this morning on Steve. The picture in the paper shows him with a visor and the name of an environmental company. It mentions another fried Steve Ditzel who plays with him in a Tuesday night poker game. Would this be someone you know?

Todd

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by henry296

There is an article on the Baltimore Sun this morning on Steve. The picture in the paper shows him with a visor and the name of an environmental company. It mentions another fried Steve Ditzel who plays with him in a Tuesday night poker game. Would this be someone you know?

Todd

I will have to get the paper edition, there's no pic online (where I usually read the Sun).

Doesn't sound like anyone I know, though.

[Simms]

Centrebet.com published their updated odds last night, and either Dannenmann is a pretty highly regarded pro, or he has impressed the hell out of some bookies:

2005 WSOP Winner:
3-1 Phil Ivey
5-1 Greg Raymer
6-1 Steve Dannenmann
6-1 Mike Matusow
10-1 Tex Barch
10-1 Andrew Black
15-1 Daniel Bergsdorf
15-1 Joe Hachem
15-1 Michael Kessler
15-1 Scott Lazar
20-1 Aaron Kanter
20-1 Minh Ly
20-1 Tim Phan
20-1 Tommy Vu
25-1 Bryant King
25-1 Brad Kondracki
25-1 Oskar Silow
25-1 Connor Tate
40-1 Joe Connor
40-1 Bernard Lee
40-1 Tom Sartori
50-1 Johnny Howard
50-1 Tiffany Williamson
80-1 Per Hildebrand
80-1 John McGrane
100-1 Shawn Sheikhan
150-1 Ayhan Alsancak

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Simms

...either Dannenmann is a pretty highly regarded pro, or he has impressed the hell out of some bookies:[/i][/i]

I wonder how tightly those odds (perhaps except Ivey) correspond to the current chip counts.

Dannenman is a self-confessed poor player, and not a pro by any stretch. I'm guessing he's short odds just because he has chips.

[QuikSand]

Looks like the odds on Dannenman are essentially connected to his chip count:

from gutshot.com:

- - - - -

Over night chip leaders...

Phil Ivey $4,600,000 118 1
Mike Matusow $4,500,000 117 7
Steve Dannenmann $4,150,000 118 3
Tex Barch $3,900,000 117 9
Greg Raymer $3,500,000 0 5
Scott Lazar $2,900,000 129 6
Joe Hachem $2,700,000 0 9
Michael Kessler $2,700,000 0 2
Daniel Bergsdorf $2,500,000 118 2
Andrew Black $2,350,000 117 2
Aaron Kanter $2,200,000 117 5
Tim Phan $2,200,000 0 6
Tommy Vu $2,000,000 129 5
Minh Ly $1,800,000 118 7
Brad Kondracki $1,500,000 117 8
Bryant King $1,500,000 129 3
Connor Tate $1,300,000 129 1
Oskar Silow $1,300,000 118 6
Joe Connor $1,000,000 118 8
Tiffany Williamson $1,000,000 0 4
Bernard Lee $950,000 129 7
Tom Sartori $950,000 0 3
Johnny Howard $800,000 118 9
John McGrane $600,000 129 4
Per Hildebrand $550,000 129 2
Shawn Sheikhan $400,000 0 8
Ayhan Alsancak $250,000 117 3

- - -

My read here is that they essentially started with the chip stacks, rounded down the odds on Ivey and Raymer because they are established winners, perhaps rounded up the odds on Matusow because he is an established catastrophe waiting to happen, and left everyone else in order, more or less.

Based on what I saw from Minh Ly earlier in these events, maybe he's not getting enough credit in that regard.

[cartman]

What are the blinds going into the start of today's play?

[Simms]

The chip counts I'm getting (which I'm told are "official", fwiw), are a little different than gutshot's (not that I'm arguing your point, Quik ):

1. Mike Matusow (Las Vegas, NV) $5.14M
2. Phil Ivey (Las Vegas, NV) $4.635M
3. Steven Dannenmann (Severn, MD) $4.3M
4. Tex Barch (McKinney, TX) $3.9M
5. Greg "Fossil Man" Raymer (Stonington, CT) $3.84
6. Brad Koudrachi (Kingston, PA) $3.16M
7. Joseph Hachem (Melbourne, Australia $3.125M
8. Scott Lazar (Studio City, CA) $3.025M
9. Michael Kessler (Spotsylvania, VA) $2.7M
10. Daniel Bergsdorf (Umea, Sweden) $2.55M

11. Andrew Black (Dublin, Ireland) $2.09M
12. Minh Ly (Las Vegas, NV) $2.050M
13. Aaron Kanter (Lodi) $1.925M
14. Tuan Vu (Las Vegas, NV) $1.87M
15. Tim Phan (Westminster) $1.575M
16. Oskar Silow (Goteborg, Sweden) $1.44M
17. Bryant King Liberty Lake $1.44M
18. Conor Tate (Bury, Ireland) $1.265M
19. Tiffany Williamsen London, UK $1.125M
20. Joe Connor Atlanta, GA $1.065M

21. Tom Sartorv (Buffalo, NY) $805K
22. Johnny Howard (Lexington Park, MD) $730K
23. Bernard Lee (Wayland, MA) $710K
24. Per Hildebrand (Stockholm, Sweden) $645K
25. John McGrane (London, UK) $575K
26. Shahram Shublem (Las Vegas, NV) $310K
27. Ayhan Alsancak (Goteborg, Sweden) $225K

For cartman: They're about an hour into level 26: $5k antes, $20k/40k blinds. Average stack is $2.081 million.

[kcchief19]

A final table with Ivey, Matusow and Raymer would be a fun table to watch 300 or 400 times on ESPN.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Simms

For cartman: They're about an hour into level 26: $5k antes, $20k/40k blinds. Average stack is $2.081 million.

Thanks. So the short stacks need to make some moves to last much longer than the first hour of play today.

[Comey]

The chip stacks Simms gets add up, and according to CardPlayer, are accurate from last night (for the most part).

Gutshot's only add up to 51 million.

[QuikSand]

I think Raymer's affirmation is sealed at this point. Whether he's motivated by this or not, his very strong finish following the win last year is going to rate among the very most impressive achievements in poker history.

[John Galt]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

is going to rate among the very most impressive achievements

Look's like it is time for Big Blue's annual check-up. Something is definitely out of sorts.

[QuikSand]

*sigh*

[John Galt]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

*sigh*

Obviously, Big Blue is not looking forward to the intrusive lube job.

[Honolulu Blue]

From cardplayer.com:

Date / Time: 2005-07-14 17:10:00
Title: Greg Raymer Eliminated in 25th Place ($304,680)
Log:
Hand 23 - Andrew Black has the button in seat 8, Alsancak raises, and Raymer calls from the big blind. The flop comes Kh-Kc-7c, Raymer moves all in, and Alsancak calls. Raymer shows Ac-9h, and Alsancak has pocket fives (5d-5c). Raymer needs to catch a nine, an ace, or running clubs to stay alive. The turn card is the Kd, and Raymer needs to catch a seven, a nine, a king, or an ace to stay alive. The river card is the 2s, and Greg Raymer is eliminated in 25th place, earning $304,680.

The entire crowd of spectators, media, and even members of the ESPN crew give Raymer a standing ovation as he is eliminated in his quest to repeat as the World Series of Poker champion.

And this is the hand where he lost most of his stack:

Date / Time: 2005-07-14 16:44:00
Title: Aaron Kanter Doubles Up Through Greg Raymer at the Featured Table
Log:
Hand 20 - Ayhan Alsancak has the button in seat 5, Raymer raises, and Kanter calls. The flop comes 6c-5d-3h, and there's a bet and a call. The turn card is the 7h, Kanter bets $600,000, and the two players are quickly all in. Raymer shows pocket kings (Kd-Kh), and Kanter has Qh-Jh. Kanter has a flush draw, and needs to catch a heart to win the pot. The river card is the 2h, and Kanter makes his flush to double up through Greg Raymer.

Kanter's supporters are ecstatic, and cheering loudly, but the rest of the room is nearly silent as crowd-favorite Greg Raymer loses a huge pot. You can distinctly hear the cheers, but the silence in the rest of the room is almost
overpowering. Aaron Kanter now has somewhere between $3.5 and $4 million, while Greg Raymer is crippled down to about $400,000.

So close, and yet so far. Alas.

[cthomer5000]

Still, a profit of ~ $290,000 ain't bad for less than a week of work.

[Leonidas]

For the more astute, poker following folks here, where the hell has Raymer been since last year? I thought he was a fluke after last season, but now he's back in the mix again I have to change that opinion and admit the guy is great, but in the meantime where's he been?

And I am really bummed Dan Harrington isn't around to go for a 3rd straight final.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Leonidas

For the more astute, poker following folks here, where the hell has Raymer been since last year? I thought he was a fluke after last season, but now he's back in the mix again I have to change that opinion and admit the guy is great, but in the meantime where's he been?

And I am really bummed Dan Harrington isn't around to go for a 3rd straight final.

Raymer is much more an internet than live player, as far as I know.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Raymer is much more an internet than live player, as far as I know.

I believe that is true now. I know the whole fossilman thing started when he started playing brick and mortar (they told the story during last year's WSOP) but I think he mostly plays online at the site he does ads for (stars?)

[digamma]

Ivey out.

[Suicane75]

Damnit

[digamma]

Down to ten. They'll play to eliminate one more tonight and then tomorrow's final table will be set. Matusow is still alive.

[Suicane75]

Damn man, i can't go to sleep till this is done. I'm rooting for The Mouth now.

[timmynausea]

I can't decide who the hell to root for.

[larrymcg421]

I'm rooting for Black because his actions to protect another player that had been screwed earlier. Plus, he's an Irishman. I hope Matusow goes far because he makes for good TV.

A shortstack just doubled up via a 2 outer ont he river. ESPN was visibly unhappy. Will make for great TV but less sleep.

[Suicane75]

Matusow is effin funny.