WSOP Pool 2009

[digamma]

Originally Posted by digamma

Am I wrong in thinking THE Joey Lawrence made a push to be called Joseph Lawrence professionally a few years ago?

Our friend is still alive, though a little short...about $400k.

Out in 139th.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by digamma

Out in 139th.

That's too bad, but still a damn good showing.

Checking pokernews, I don't see any eliminations of notable players yet. Ivey is on a roll, up to $1.9 million.

[Comey]

Jordan Morgan is out, as is Blair Hinkle.

JC Tran can ride a short stack. He hasn't had chips for three days.

[Comey]

dola--

Pokernews seems to be down at the moment.

[Comey]

Well crap. Theo Tran and Elky are gone. And, with them, so are my fantasy hopes...I think. If Ivey outlasts JC Tran, I may still have a shot.

[larrymcg421]

JC Tran is out.

[larrymcg421]

Hachem and Benyamine out.

[Comey]

And Ivey's up to 2.6m.

[larrymcg421]

1st post updated. We have a new leader. The combination of Elky, Bonomo, and Theo Tran was enough to vault Comey into 1st place.

The pool is now down to two players. jbergey22 will win if Ivey wins the Main Event. Anything else, and Comey is the champion.

[hoopsguy]

Congrats to Comey on his performance this year.

[Comey]

Well, this is good news as I head to bed. First, free DMB tickets for Alpine, and now this!

I was kicking myself for picking Theo Tran. Now, not so much.

Here's to the 99 players NOT Phil Ivey!

[larrymcg421]

Ivey gets lucky with JJ vs QQ and busts a short stack to go over $3 million

[larrymcg421]

Noah Boeken is out.

We're starting to run out of notables.

[Comey]

Jeff Shulman is still doing quite well.

The guy that Ivey busted is one of the best online players in the world...Trex313. I believe he's an extremely talented omaha player.

Four of the five short stacks are Minh Nguyen, Joe Sebok, Kenny Tran and Blair Rodman. Friedman and Eastgate not doing so hot. Neither is Owen Crowe.

Still two women left. The one, Peppe, is kind of attractive (redhead, plays poker...that'd do it for me). But I just looked up the other, Leo Margets...wow. Wish I still had cable.

[Radii]

LOL at one of the recent pokernews updates

Table Talk:

Andrew Lichtenberger: "If I wear my hat backwards, will it make me look like a badass?"
Phil Ivey: "... Nothing you do will make you look badass."

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Noah Boeken is out.

We're starting to run out of notables.

95 left, I recognize 11 names at a glance but don't want to put some kind of FOFC whammy on them. A couple are very short at the moment ...

[larrymcg421]

Sebok has been nursing a short stack forever, and just won a race to stay alive, but he's still super short with less than $400k.

[larrymcg421]

People in the shoutbox in Pokernews are making all of these stupid Chuck Norris-style jokes about Dennis Phillips.

[larrymcg421]

Minh Nguyen busted, but is that even the same Minh Nguyen that is a protege of Men the Master? I know we had this issue in a previous year.

[Comey]

It is.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

People in the shoutbox in Pokernews are making all of these stupid Chuck Norris-style jokes about Dennis Phillips.

After watching the final table - and not a ton else - from last year I'm stunned to see this guy on another deep Main Event run.

[hoopsguy]

Kenny Tran is out in 86th.

Digamma, is your friend still in the event?

[larrymcg421]

Eastgate also out.

Still alive are:

Phil Ivey - 6,345,000
Antonio Esfandiari - 5,610,000
Jeff Shulman - 4,745,000
Leo Margets - 3,650,000
Tom Schneider - 2,895,000
Dennis Phillips - 2,305,000
Blair Rodman - 2,130,000
Joe Sebok - 1,000,000
Prahlad Friedman - 840,000

Ivey is 3rd overall in chips with 64 players left.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

Kenny Tran is out in 86th.

Digamma, is your friend still in the event?

He posted earlier that his friend went out 139th.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

He posted earlier that his friend went out 139th.

Oops - upon the initial read I thought that was saying Joey Lawrence was out in 139th

[larrymcg421]

Much respect to Sebok for the way he plays a short stack.

[larrymcg421]

Prahlad Friedman out in 64th place.

[Subby]

Hey CardPlayer updates website I was wondering if JEFF SHULMAN was playng in the Main Event. DO YOU HAVE ANY UPDATES ON HIM????

[larrymcg421]

Sebok in trouble, down to $500k. 60 players left.

[larrymcg421]

Ivey Makes a Hero Call

Phil Ivey opened for 135,000 from late position and Christopher Bach called from the big blind. Both players checked the flop. The turn came the and Bach bet 150,000. Ivey made the call. The river was the and Bach fired a second barrel for 360,000. Ivey looked him up. Bach had nothing more than . Ivey's was good and he raked in the pot. He's now up to 7.1 million while Bach fell to 2.2 million.

57 left.

[hoopsguy]

Sebok out, per Dad's twitter.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Ivey's an absolute freak. Really would love to see him at the final table. Would make for 8 other players pissing their pants, especially if he has a big stack.

[larrymcg421]

Too bad about Sebok. He played terrific the last couple days.

I bet ESPN is really rooting for Ivey and Margets. Imagine the adgasm that we will see if those two are part of thee November Nine.

[Comey]

Antonio too. He has more marketing power than given credit for.

[larrymcg421]

Ivey on a roll. He's up to $11.8 million now.

37 left.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

I bet ESPN is really rooting for Ivey and Margets. Imagine the adgasm that we will see if those two are part of thee November Nine.

And on the other end of the spectrum, imagine the nightmare scenario that's unfolding for them if they aren't. They're getting dangerously close to the verge of a final table that doesn't include anyone that even hardcore fans have ever heard of and that would be hard to distinguish from the average tourist at Circus Circus.

[larrymcg421]

Blair Rodman out in 34th.

For the notables, that leaves:

Phil Ivey - $11.3 million
Jeff Shulman - $7.1 million
Antonio Esfandiari - $5.35 million
Leo Margets - $1.8 million

Ivey is 2nd overall in chips.

[digamma]

I don't really think that's the case. ESPN has a ton of great stories for its prelim broadcasts. Ivey going deep, Phillips' run, Sebok, Kara Scott, Jason Alexander's first two days of play, the sell out on the last day. They didn't market the final table guys at all last year. If we are sans Ivey and the Magician, I imagine we'll see a similar strategy.

[larrymcg421]

LOL. Apparently Matusow has two bets going with Andy Bloch.

Bloch is giving him 100:1 odds on Ivey winning and 10:1 on him making the final table. Matusow putting up $1000 for each bet.

Matusow is now making fun of Bloch on Twitter, and Bloch is trying to settle the bet now for $10,000.

[kcchief19]

There haven't really been any household names for even hardcore poker fans the last few years. Rheem, Montgomery and Schwartz weren't superstars by any stretch. ESPN airs enough hours and repeats that they will make stars of anybody who makes the final table by November. I think Phillips, Eastgate, Demidov, Kim and the like were very well know.

That said, ESPN has to be orgasming at the notion of Ivey making the November 9. Leo Margets would be a nice get story too but ESPN would faint if Esfandari made it. They might stretch out the final table to three or four hours.

[kcchief19]

Are they playing down to 27 today? Might be another early night.

[larrymcg421]

That was the plan, but there are some people pushing to play all 5 levels tonight. They're already down to 29.

Matusow counters that he'll only settle the bets for $30k.

[Radii]

Chatting with a poker playing buddy of mine we both agreed that we'd settle the Matusow bet for 20k.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

ESPN airs enough hours and repeats that they will make stars of anybody who makes the final table by November.

I guess I'm just not perceiving that the random final table people are actually becoming "stars" from the ESPN coverage at this point. Hell, I'm not sure they're even becoming semi-stars.

My feeling is that various notables on the various shows like Poker After Dark, which tend to be established poker celebrities (i.e. I follow it only casually but I have an image in my mind of virtually every one of those players when I hear their names) are at a much higher elevation than last year's final table, roughly half of which I couldn't distinguish today by name from the practice squad of the Wilmington Hammerheads USL Second Division soccer team.

[Barkeep49]

But the funny thing is that Phil Ivey is no where as good for a final table as Esfandiari would be in terms of marketing. Ivey has never been into self-promotion the way a lot of others are, he's simply above that. He gave a long Poker Road interview a while back where he talked about that in depth and how he's just not into that. I wonder if the November 9 thing would change him, but I don't think it would. If you're looking for a face for poker to promote I think The Magician would be a great one.

[hoopsguy]

If you're looking for a face for poker to promote I think The Magician would be a great one.

Rocks and rings, FTW?

May not need to think too deeply on this, as he just shipped half of his stack and is now below 3 million chips. Blinds will be 50K/100K with a 10K ante upon return from the break.

[Subby]

lol Rocks and Rings

Gogogo Ivey!!!

[Subby]

[larrymcg421]

Esfandiari would be great for marketing, but the thing about Ivey is he wouldn't need to do any promotion. He's definitely the bigger name, and outside of maybe Hellmuth, the biggest name in all of poker. FT with Ivey gets much higher ratings than a FT with Esfandiari.

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Esfandiari would be great for marketing, but the thing about Ivey is he wouldn't need to do any promotion. He's definitely the bigger name, and outside of maybe Hellmuth, the biggest name in all of poker. FT with Ivey gets much higher ratings than a FT with Esfandiari.

I'm not sure that's true. I think Esfaniari has a much better chance at growing the market. I think Ivey would do a better job of ensuring people who are already interested in poker, or who had been at one time, watch. I'd like to see poker make another advance into the mainstream. I don't think Ivey can deliever it for us. Antonio might be able to help some though.