WSOP Main Event: Senter at the center of the
poker action

Kent Senter is a 55-year old father of four from Pittsburgh, PA. Eighteen months ago, Senter was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, also known as Jimmy Valvano disease, and doctors expected him to live for another six months to two years.

He had previously hurt his shoulder before moving to Pittsburgh in 2007 and although at the time doctors suspected it might have been cancer, Senter saw three other physicians and the leading orthopedic oncologist at the University of Pittsburg Medical Hospital who all told him he was cancer free. Over the next year the pain worsened and Senter could barely bend his body or walk. Even then, he and his family assumed he had bad arthritis as he was then employed as the zone manager for a major store, where his job entailed unloading the entire tractor-trailer of products every night by himself.

Kent Senter

In March, Senter was hit in the back when a freight fell on his truck and crushed him. The doctors order an MRI and only then discovered that he had multiple myeloma, with tumors on his spine and skeleton. Senter still had no complaints and continued his career to support to support his family. The day before the cancer was discovered, Senter's employers cut his job back from a salaried manager to an hourly department manager and he lost 20% of his disability pay. Kent's wish is to take care of his family and donate whatever he can to the Jimmy V Foundation and the Multiple Myleoma Foundation.

He took his seat on day 1c of the World Series of Poker Main Event, and is still going strong passed the dinner break. We wish him and his family all the very best and the continued support of all at PokerStars.

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Phil Hellmuth's Grand Entrance to the 2009 WSOP
Main Event

Well, as we reported earlier, poker pro Phil Hellmuth made another, well, Hellmuthian entrance to a WSOP Main Event. This year he was Caesar and there's not really much more you can say about that than what you're already thinking based on the picture above.For more pictures, head over to Wicked Chops Poker. There's also ...

Read The Full Article:
http://beat.bodoglife.com/poker/phil-hellmuths-grand-entrance-to-the-2009-wsop-ma
in-event-39217.html

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All the right toppings: pizzaiolo1 wins Sunday
Warm-up

With over six thousand poker players currently crushing the World Series of Poker Main Event tonight's $750,000 Guarantee was sure to be a ghost town right?

Wrong.

3,884 players found the less expensive $215 buy in for the Sunday Warm-up more to their liking easily going over the $750,000 Guarantee and producing a $776,800.00 prize pool that 585 players would get to share. Only one however would go home with the $121,957.61 sitting at the top.

Tonight's bubble boy truly took a bad beat, after watching Bobba Gee get blinded down for being disconnected for the past hour or longer, DenverSports pushed over the top for a shade under three million chips of mick_allin's UTG+2 raise, only to see Bobba Gee magically come alive with a mere 45,148 chips and race for the last seats to the final table. mick_allin covered and called the all-in bet to show the three way hand below:

mick_allin: [Jc][Jh]
Bobba Gee: [4h][4s]
DenverSports: [Qc][Ac]

[4d] [Ks] [7d] [4c] [5d] on the board gave the short main pot to Bobba Gee with quads as the 5.4 million chip side pot went to the jacks of mick_allin as DenverSports was eliminated in tenth place ($4,660.81) to set up the final table below:

Seat 1: strip23 (8724547 in chips)
Seat 2: ThislsTheEnd (3253380 in chips)
Seat 3: Thor6587 (3940683 in chips)
Seat 4: pizzaiolo1 (2315607 in chips)
Seat 5: sqwiggi8000 (6757373 in chips)
Seat 6: Bobba Gee (590444 in chips)
Seat 7: mr flyboy (2141402 in chips)
Seat 8: mick_allin (6912160 in chips)
Seat 9: Elwood_fi (4204404 in chips)

The curious case of Bobba Gee ended very quickly at the final table. With blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K and only the second hand of the final table tonight Bobba Gee open shoved the light 564,444 chip stack with [Th][Jd] in middle position. Folded around to Thor6587 in the big blind sitting on almost four million in chips made the call with [6h][Ks]. Neither player benefited from the [5c] [2c] [2h] [Ad] [Qd] board and Bobba Gee finally disconnected for good in ninth place ($6,214.41).

sqwiggi8000 would trim an eight million chip pot off mick_allin after the two traded raises on a [8d] [2c] [Ah] flop. mick_allin couldn't match the 4.8 million chip three-bet and with that pot brought the tournament's first 10 million chip stack as mick_allin was still in good shape holding 3.6 million in chips with blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K.

Seven hands later Thor6587, who was responsible for the night's first elimination, would become the table's next causality. Using the power of the button, Thor6587 would three-bet strip23's middle position raise to 2.5 million all-in. With [As][Tc] strip23 made the call as Thor6587 rolled over the two face cards that did not match in [Jh][Qc]. The hammer of Thor was heard loud and clear on the [9s][Js][4s] taking the lead with a pair of jacks, but that noise was silenced after the [Ts] gave strip23 the nut flush leaving Thor6587 time power down the computer for the evening drawing dead but gaining $9,701.01 in the process for the eighth place finish.

In a head scratcher of a hand, strip23 managed to get ThisIsTheEnd all-in preflop holding just [8h][9h] for a 9.7 million chip pot. Watch the hand's exciting conclusion below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Trip nines for strip23 meant the end came sooner than expected for ThisIsTheEnd but the solace of $17,478.01 should heal some bad beat wounds as those pocket jacks couldn't hold up in seventh place.

Three hands later as the players stepped up the aggression and action found mick_allin putting 2.5 million into the middle with [Kh][Qh] against pizzaiolo1's cutoff raise. pizzaiolo1 found pocket sixes [6d][6h] plenty to make the call. This [3s] [Ad] [4h] [7d] [2c] board could only produce one heart and no face cards and mick_allin was all out of chips in sixth place ($25,246.01).

Another day, another river card. Unfortunately for Elwood_fi the hot hand of strip23 caught up on the river once again in the hand below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

With the rivered pair of aces, strip23 sent Elwood_fi home with cracked pocket kings and $33,014.01 in fifth place.

With the departure of Elwood_fi in fifth place, about ten hands later the table sat down with the lovely Team PokerStarsPro Vicky Coren

to broker the deal shown below (setting aside $10,000.00 for the winner) with the 125K/250K ante 25K blinds getting a little too large for their comfort:

strip23: $110,659.86
mr flyboy: $57,006.32
pizzaiolo1: $75,214.47
sqwiggi8000: $68,714.26

True to the words of the players the action ramped up huge after the four-way chop. First, mr flyboy would raise into pizzaiolo1's small blind for one million only to get re-popped for 2.25 million back by pizzaiolo1 as mr flyboy elected to call. Both players checked the [As] [6s] [5c] flop but with the [Kc] on the turn they broke out of their shells and shoved all-in with pizzaiolo1 covering.

mr flyboy: [Ks][Qh]
pizzaiolo1: [Jh][Ad]

The slowplayed flopped pair of aces was good for the 8.5 million chip pot held up for pizzaiolo1 on the [3c] river as mr flyboy flew away from the final table tarmac with the chopped $57,006.32 in fourth place.

Two hands later pizzaiolo1 would chop down strip23's dominance in the chip counts with carefully value betting pocket queens [Qs][Qc] on every street of the [6d] [4c] [Jd] [Ts] [8h] board as strip23 could only produce [7h][6c] for a pair of sixes. 23 million chips found their way into pizzaiolo1's stack.

The stacks would flatten out a bit over the course of the 150K/300K ante 30K blind level but it was sqwiggi8000's stack that would be flatten to zero first. After a tame button raise to 900K with blinds at 150K300K ante 30K by pizzaiolo1 and a call by both sqwiggi8000 and strip23 everyone saw the monotone [7s] [6s] [Qs] flop. sqwiggi8000 checked, strip23 punched random numbers and bet 1,856,231 as pizzaiolo1 gave up on the preflop raise. sqwiggi8000 elected to check-raise to 5.4 million, but that just woke up strip23 into shoving for nearly 10 million total. sqwiggi8000 would call for less holding [Th][Qd], as strip23 held [Qh][7h] good for two pair. No one held a spade as sqwiggi800 was left looking deep for a ten, which failed to appear on the [8c] turn and [Kc] river sending sqwiggi8000 off to work with the chopped $68,714.26 in third place.

Despite the huge chip lead during the chip chop, strip23's lead was not so apparent at the start of heads up play:

Seat 1: strip23 (21567362 in chips)
Seat 4: pizzaiolo1 (17272638 in chips)

pizzaiolo1 went right to work on hand five of heads up play, snagging a 19 million chip pot holding just third pair on a [2s] [4c] [Jd] [6h] [6d] board and calling a 4.2 million chip raise on the river by strip23 to find [4s][9h] was good.

Another five hands later the $10,000.00 would be shipped to pizzaiolo1 for overcoming the huge chip deficit to become this week's $750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up champion! Check out how both players got their chips into the middle preflop below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Race for the finish as pizzaiolo1's pocket sevens [7h][7c] held up over strip23's [Ac][Td] to win the extra $10,000.00 set aside from the four-way deal and claim $85,214.47 as tonight's winner. strip23 as the runner-up was the biggest winner having secured $110,659.86 in the deal.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (07-05-09)
(* based on four-way chop)
1. pizzaiolo1 (coral springs) *$85,214.47
2. strip23 (Berlin) *$110,659.86
3. sqwiggi8000 (Aarhus C) *$68,714.26
4. mr flyboy (richmond) *$57,006.32
5. Elwood_fi (Vihti) $33,014.01
6. mick_allin (scarborough) $25,246.01
7. ThislsTheEnd (Brest) $17,478.01
8. Thor6587 (Malmoe) $9,710.01
9. Bobba Gee (Dub) $6,214.41

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/sw/2009/post-3-047095.html

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Team Bodog and Table Draws in Day 1C of the 2009
WSOP Main Event

Ok, so we were strolling the aisles of the Amazon and Brasilia Rooms snapping photos of Team Bodog when we came across the table of Bodog Poker pro Jean Robert Bellande. Honestly, we noticed Liv Boeree first (obv), then we noticed Bellande. Then we saw online poker phenom Andrew "good2cu" Robl and kind of chuckled ...

Read The Full Article:
http://beat.bodoglife.com/poker/team-bodog-and-table-draws-in-day-1c-of-the-2009-
wsop-main-event-48434.html

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WSOP Main Event: Poker freaks

Most poker commentators know by now that the likes of Dario Minieri and Noah Boeken graduated to playing poker from their love of the card game Magic: The Gathering. Similarly, few biographies of their Team PokerStars Pro colleague Ylon Schwartz failed to mention his days as a chess hustler in New York's Washington Square Park, before he made his surge to the Main Event final table last year.

But as anyone who has read a book named "Word Freaks" (or seen the movie of the same name) will know, Washington Square Park is also the home to small gatherings around a different checkered board, where folks are also found rattling a bag of lettered tiles. New York's intellectual hustlers are also big fans of Scrabble, the ultimate test of word-making, and sitting in the Amazon Ballroom today, playing the World Series of Poker Main Event, is Jim Geary, one of the highest ranked Scrabble players in America.

Jim Geary

Geary is a PokerStars qualifier in the Main Event and has been having a terrific series so far, reaching two final tables and cashing in a third event. It seems the world of double word scores and bingos is not so far away from that of nut flushes and bad beats after all.

Indeed, there are far more similarities between the two games than might first be apparent. Geary is mentioned at length in "Word Freaks", tutoring the author, Stefan Fatsis, as he attempts to make it in the world of professional Scrabble. In that respect, the book is not too dissimilar to "Positively Fifth Street", the book charting the journalist Jim McManus's assault on the World Series.

But the two worlds overlap in other ways too. Fatsis and Geary, among others, visit the numerous tournaments around the world to compete in vast conference facilities of major hotels, and during downtime they loiter in the lobbies, corridors and bedrooms discussing strategy and tactics, else testing one another's word powers with a series of verbal problems. Anyone who has visited a major poker tournament will know exactly how this goes. You can't ever sit in a restaurant within a 50-mile radius of the Rio without hearing stories starting with a variation of "I had ace-king under the gun" or some such.

Geary is clearly a voracious fan of all intellectual games and problems, and Fatsis acknowledges his influence as one of Scrabble's most flexible thinkers. Geary's website links to countless puzzles and teasers, as well as a blog that details poker statistics (Sample quote: "I don't think I've ever been > 1000:1 favorite before" from a stud hand analysis) and shows crossword grids in the shape of a space invader, for example. A picture on the homepage shows Geary with a speech-bubble floating above his head, stating: "Something to bore everyone." Far from it -- at least for geeks like this reporter.

The main area in which Scrabble differs from poker, however, is the money. Fatsis and co, even those at the very top of the game, can only expect prize money in the low thousands, something that the poker player Geary is unlikely to tolerate. He took $230,000 for his third place in the $2,000 no limit event last month, adding that to more than $30,000 for seventh in an Omaha event the previous week. His hopes for the Main Event are perhaps as high as they've ever been, as described beneath the punning headline "Once More, Into the Bleach" in today's blog post:

"I'm off now to play the 10k. This is my fifth one. First four went

2003) out right at end of day 1
2004) out in 3rd hour
2007) day 4
2008) out in 3rd hour

With the slowww structure, I like my chances today of raising the median."

He's currently north of 50,000 and looking good to make good on that promise.

* * * * *

TWEET OF THE HOUR

"Having a great time with Joe Hachem who is now afraid to bluff me (amen) & dreaming of dinner break. Sushi waiting." -- @Maridu

* * * * *

QUOTE OF THE HOUR

"I don't watch TV." -- TV's Scotty Nguyen talking to players at his table while surrounded by cameras and microphones.

* * * * *

TEAM POKERSTARS SIGNING OF THE HOUR

Welcome to the team, Marcel Luske's coffee cup:

* * * * *

ELIMINATION OF THE HOUR

After four coolers within the hour, the PokerStars qualifier, and Friend of PokerStars Blog, John Caldwell is out. "Was is meant to be?" pondered Caldwell ruefully.

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WSOP Main Event: Friends of the PokerStars Blog

There are so many Teams and Friends these days, it's hard to keep track of them all. There's the Team PokerStars Pro we all know and love. There's the recently-formed Friends of PokerStars, folks like Jason Alexander, Gualter Salles, and the like. There's Team PokerStars Blog, the few of us who write our missives here and who fully intend to take down (or accidentally sleep through) the WSOP Media Event this week.

And then there are those people who have been longtime Friends of the Pokerstars Blog. These are the folks with whom we have traveled, written, drank, and chatted over, lo, these many years. They are our friends, our colleagues, and people we're happily watching compete in Day 1C of the 2009 WSOP.

Among these people is John Caldwell, the one time rock and roll manager turned PokerNews editor turned co-host of PokerRoad's "The Poker Beat." There are few people more respected in the poker industry and Caldwell's leadership is largely responsible for how poker journalism looks today. We met Caldwell back in 2005 in Deauville, France and have been friends ever since. It was then we learned he was no slouch as a poker player, either. This year, free from the daily responsibilities of herding poker reporters in the Amazon Room, Caldwell is using a PokerStars satellite win to play in Day 1C. We checked in on him just a bit ago and found him sitting with what seemed really close to his starting stack.

"Just wasting my time," he quipped.

Sitting just a few feet away from us on media row is one Terrence Chan. By now, Chan needs little introduction. The one-time PokerStars employee turned big time poker pro is now a brand name of his own in the poker world who you can find on circuits all over the world (not to mention in some of PokerStars highest stakes games). Chan's running pretty well this afternoon. As he mentioned on his Twitter account at the last break, he's up to 63,000. "About as well as one can hope for without coolering someone," he said.

Finally, there's an anonymous Friend of the PokerStars Blog who some folks may have seen us cover before. He goes by the name Blue Rabbit and we've been all over the place with our man. If you know the name, you'll be happy to know he's still alive heading toward the dinner break.

We're obviously paid to do more than report on our friends. Fortunately, we have a pretty solid argument. Our friends also happen to be damned good poker players.

* * * * *

TWEET OF THE HOUR

"Hi Mom!" --@Maridu, obviously needing to refocus her efforts somewhere other than familial greetings.

LAYDOWN OF THE HOUR

On an ace-king-ten flop Tristan Wade, from Florida, mucked ace-king facing a 10,000 bet. After folding his opponent showed queen-jack.

JOE GIRON PHOTO HOUR

Birdseye view of Maridu and Joe Hachem facing off

VIDEO OF THE HOUR

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WSOP 2009: Sporting PokerStars

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/wsop/2009/wsop-2009-sporting-pokerstars-047090.html

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Day 1C of 2009 World Series of Poker Underway,
Bigger Turnout

We are now at the first break of Day 1C of the 2009 WSOP Main Event and the field is substantially larger than either of the previous two starting days. We've heard unofficial guesses ranging from 1,500 - 1,800, putting the total up close to 3,500 so far. Another 1,500 tomorrow and they'll reach the ...

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http://beat.bodoglife.com/poker/day-1c-of-2009-world-series-of-poker-underway-big
ger-turnout-85890.html

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WSOP Main Event: Solid gold poker

Not for Tom McEvoy the iPods, those badges of modern technology that equip the modern poker player against the first signs or boredom at the table. Not for Tom McEvoy the twitter account, revealing staccato insight into the last hand, the next hand and the quality of the fruit salad. No, Tom McEvoy is one of those pure poker players. Just an ex-world champ, a big cowboy hat, a couple of signet rings a pink shirt and a beard. Oh, and that shiny gold World Series bracelet on his wrist.

Back in 1983 McEvoy was the Moneymaker of his time, an amateur player, yet to turn pro, who won his seat in a satellite before winning the whole thing. In a poker career spanning more than 25 years McEvoy has won five bracelets, cashed in 42 events and amassed prize money of close to $3 million from tournament wins all over the place.

Then there was this year when, from among one of the most fearsome looking line-ups in tournament history anywhere - exclusive to Main Event winners - McEvoy held off the likes of Brunson, Chan, Hellmuth and the rest to win the first WSOP Champions Invitational, an event that obviously had a major effect on the Team PokerStars Pro...

"That is something I will cherish for the rest of my life. The older players clearly dominated the final table, and I have one last thing to say: 'Old School Rocks!'"

Buoyed by that spirit McEvoy has started well today and just took another bundle from a player half his age at his table.

Making it 625 pre-flop from the cut off McEvoy was called by the young player on the button and in seat four for a flop of [ac][as][3d]. The each checked for a turn card [7d]. This didn't change much for McEvoy who, peering through mirrored shades, the only visible sign of twentieth century living, tapped the table with his index finger. The button announced "750" and looked to have it in the bag before the action was folded back to McEvoy. Not for him the threat of the young guns playing wild poker. McEvoy called and checked the button down on the [5c] river showing pocket jacks, good enough to force a quick face down fold.

The TV people closed in with the boom and camera. McEvoy is not normally the guy ready with the quips and rubdowns so were probably expecting a silent movie. No, wait...
"I was two jacks away from the bonus" said McEvoy referring to the bag of beef jerky up for grabs to any players showing four jacks. Two jacks away but still on course for day two.

*****

HAND OF THE HOUR

Facing a raise from the cutoff, Spaniard Alberto Font looked down at pocket dueces and decided to play his position and re-poppped it to 1,750. But then there was John Moore in small blind. He smelled something and he wasn't going to let it stand, regardless of the fact he was only holding a queen and a four. Moore four-bet to 7,000. Font considered the sitution and called. The flop came out [6d][Qc][3s]. Moore led at it for 9,000 and Font put him all-in. Yes, with deuces. Moore made the call. Font never found a deuce. His stack was 50,000+ before the hand now sits around 15,000. Yes, with deuces.

*****

JOE GIRON'S PHOTO HOUR

*****

TWEET OF THE HOUR

"55k at break 2. Made an Ace high call on the river vs Joe Hachem & was good. Espn got it." -- @Maridu

*****

QUOTE OF THE HOUR

"No, I think it's a freezeout."--knowledgeable railbirds in the poker kitchen share what they know about the World Series main event

*****

VIDEO BLOG OF THE HOUR

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WSOP Main Event: Needing no introduction that she
won't provide herself

As play begins on any given day at the World Series of Poker, reporters begin scurrying across the Amazon Room in an attempt to locate the notable players. No master list exists of allocated seat positions, at least not in the opening stages, meaning this search process can become something of a scattergun affair. We walk this way and that, weaving through file upon file of tables and faces, not really even knowing who we are looking for, much less where we might find them.

Today, rumours were circulating that the Team PokerStars Pro Maria "maridu" Mayrinck was somewhere in the sea. And although she's a diminutive type, from the mean streets of Rio de Janeiro swanky lanes of Ipanema, I wasn't unduly worried about my prospects of locating her. She might be small, but she sure makes herself heard. So it was that she appeared in the red section of the Amazon Room, chirruping merrily, waving and keen to give her chip count (37,000 at that time) even as she lamented her table draw.

"It's really tough," she said. "It's all online guys, and online guys who I know. They're all really good. The reason I signed up today was I thought all the online guys would be at home for the Sunday majors."

The reason she knows most of these guys, and the reason most of them would know her, is Mayrinck's -- or maridu's -- very visible presence around the online tables of PokerStars and the online discussion forums, as well as on the Latin America Poker Tour, the European Poker Tour, and the World Series. There can be few players with fingers in more pies than Mayrinck. She was even a reporter, for the Brazilian arm of PokerStars blog, for a good few years and we shared media row in this room with her last year.

Maria Mayrinck

Our brief chat during level two today was our first contact of this World Series (although Mayrinck has cashed twice, in a $2,000 hold 'em event, and the ladies event), and when I returned an hour or so later to see how she had been getting on since then, she had vanished. Her table had broken, which meant the search began again. Lo and behold, this search didn't take long either: I heard her distinctive tones coming from table 73 in the orange section, where she was informing her new table mates: "I don't know what I'm doing. So you guys are never going to know what I'm doing."

This table seems more to Mayrinck's liking, and she gleefully related that he had won two decent pots within her first orbit and is back up to around 47,000. That said, she hadn't failed to notice her esteemed table-mate and Team PokerStars Pro colleague Joe Hachem, sitting in the eight seat. "Joe gave me a run down on the whole table," she said. "He gave me his notes. But I don't know if they're his fake notes or his real notes." Hachem smiled a non-committal smile.

Joe Hachem, without ear-plugs (ie, before Maria Mayrinck's arrival)

"If you want a quote, I'll say that I'm really happy to be playing with a World Champion," Mayrinck then said, oozing media training. "And glad that he's all the way on that side of the table."

Here's one worth watching. And listening to.

* * * * *

TWEET OF THE HOUR

"Out of the wsop and don't really care. So sick I just need a bed." -- @RealKidPoker following his elimination

* * * * *

RULE COMMENTARY OF THE HOUR

A man was reprimanded for violating the excessive celebration rule for begging the dealer to not bust him. An opponent asked, "How can it be excessive celebration? He hadn't won the pot yet."

* * * * *

STATISTIC OF THE HOUR

Google search results for past three WSOP Main Event 3rd place finishers

2006 -- Michael Binger: 21,200
2007 -- Raymond Rahme: 15,100
2008 -- Dennis Phillips: 69,000

* * * * *

DOWNTIME INTOLERANT PLAYER OF THE HOUR

The player on table 37 currently playing solitaire on his iPhone between hands.

* * * * *

QUOTE OF THE HOUR

"Poker's a dangerous game."  --player to ESPN commentator Lon McEachern who was recently hobbled and put on crutches by knee surgery

* * * * *

JOE GIRON'S PHOTO HOUR

A philosophical Daniel Negreanu after his elimination from the feature table

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