2009 WSOP Main Event Final Table Plays Beforte
Full House

photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com November Nine plays before a full house in the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Resort Las VegasWSOP Poker, play it and they will come by the thousands to watch and cheer for their favorites. The Penn[...]

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2009 WSOP Main Event Final Table Plays Before
Full House

photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com November Nine plays before a full house in the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Resort Las VegasWSOP Poker, play it and they will come by the thousands to watch and cheer for their favorites. The Penn[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/007590.php

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WSOP Main Event: Schaffel sick, Buchman buoyed,
dinner

First you want to vomit.

That's the honest initial physical response--that slight push in the belly, a rising gorge that, if you weren't a man, you'd just puke all over the felt, a final expulsion of all the pure disgust left among the bile.

At least, that's how we imagined it when PokerStars qualifier Kevin Schaffel said of his aces getting cracked by kings, "I wanted to throw up."

There are relatively few people in the world who know what Schaffel just experienced. In the 40 year history of the World Series of Poker, only eight people a year have walked away from the final table and into the blackness that is another year without a WSOP Main Event bracelet.

Even smaller is the group of people who have walked away in this new era of WSOP Main Events. Only in the last two years have the media throngs grown such that it's easier to be George Clooney at Cannes than a final table player at the WSOP.

The crowd in the lobby of the Penn and Teller theater knew about Schaffel's elimination the very second he did--and maybe even sooner. Closed circuit television is showing this contest on dozens of screens around the theater, lobby, and hallways. Alongside the bar on the first floor, fans of every player crushed toward the monitors as the pair of kings picked up a third and fourth to go along. The cheers, groans, and sighs were no more than three part harmony of the age old tune, "Glad It Wasn't Me."

Then came the crush of media. Representatives of every outlet played nice at first, pretending as though they were going to cooperate when Schaffel finally arrived. Handshakes and smiles were the order of the day until the Schaffel fans' cheers rose up in the room. The sickness was about to begin.

That's where the long walk must have be the nicest for a guy like Schaffel. As he strode into the room--defeated but not broken--his friends and family cheered with all their might. Cameras flashed. Hugs embraced him. He was a hero who lacked the finest laurels.

If it ended there, it wouldn't be so bad. Alas, there was still one more job to do, and it was not likely one Schaffel expected to enjoy. It's akin to giving a public address about your dead dog before you've even buried him.

The media man took Schaffel's arm and led him into the pit. There were the media, microphones and cameras in hand. The formerly friendly press elbowed each other, pushed hips into buttocks, swung sharp voice recorders like swords, and played a game of Every Vulture for Himself.

"You can ask me anything except about poker," Schaffel joked. "Ask me what I'm going to do tomorrow but nothing about poker."

And this is where a man faces the final test of his mettle. After losing in such a brutal way, could Schaffel keep it together? Could he field the endless banal questions without snapping himself in two pieces and spraying his blood all over the interviewers?

Indeed he could. Schaffel was gracious as always and answered the questions with a smile. It was a rueful smile, but a smile nonetheless.

There is no training manual on how to make that long walk to the rail, but if you need an example of how to do it proudly, you can look to Kevin Schaffel.


Watch WSOP 2009 Nov9 Kevin Schaffel exit on PokerStars.tv

And the action from the hour:

Gossip, gossip, chatter, chatter. The biggest pot from the past hour has got poker analysts and railbirds alike chirping away. "How could he fold?" is the question on most of their lips. You decide for yourself.

Darvin Moon and Steven Begleiter had around six million in the pot pre-flop and the three cards off the deck were: [3s][4s][2d]. Moon checked, Begleiter bet 5,350,000 and Moon now finds a re-raise, making it 15 million. Begleiter is not scared and moves all in for a total of about 21 million, ie six million more. Most people, including everyone in the press box, are expecting an insta-call, but Moon opts to fold, yielding the pot of close to 40 million to Begleiter.

Darvin Moon

That hand took Moon out of the chip lead for the first time since about July 13. The new man at the top of the tree is Eric Buchman, with close to 52 million. Begleiter has 44 million and Moon 42 million.

Eric Buchman

The short stack at that point was Phil Ivey, with 8,550,000. But he added a few more following what would previously have been described as Dwell of the hour. Jeff Shulman raised from the button and Ivey shoved from the big blind. Shulman dwelled for what was at least five minutes before eventually letting it go. Ivey picked up another million but remains close to Joe Cada and, now, Shulman as the three short stacks.

The blinds and antes have been raised as we have now entered level 36, where they're playing 250,000-500,000 (ante 5,000). There will be a 90-minute dinner break at 7pm, meaning you should return here at 9pm for our next update. It's pretty much non-stop from then until there are only two of them left.

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WSOP Main Event: Cold deck accounts for Kevin
Schaffel

Kevin Schaffel had pocket aces twice at the 2009 World Series Main Event final table, and both times his opponent had pocket kings. While this is ordinarily the stuff of poker players' dreams, Schaffel will have this down as a nightmare. The big news from the past hour is that Schaffel, the PokerStars qualifier from Coral Springs, Florida, is out in eighth. Eric Buchman's kings ended up as quads. The bullets turned around and deposited themselves one in each of Schaffel's temples.

"I had a plan but it never works out that way," Schaffel said of his final table. "Obviously, it never works out the way you planned it."

Here's how the nightmare played out. Schaffel raised to 1,200,000 from mid position and Steven Begleiter called, one seat to his left. On the button, Buchman made it 4,500,000 and that was encouragement enough to prompt Schaffel to move all in for his whole stack of 10 million-ish. Begleiter folded but Buchman made that call, and that's when we saw those two monsters: [ac][ah] for Schaffel; [kc][kh] for Buchman.

With even the suits covered, this was looking like the hand that would send Schaffel up to more than 25 million and get him right back in this one. But the dealer had other ideas. The [ks] was in the window, joined by [qs][jh]. That put Schaffel on the ropes, but gave Schaffel six outs as either of the two aces or four tens would now do it. But the turn was the miracle/disastrous [kd] and from then on it was academic.

Schaffel sees the bad news

And so we lose the popular Schaffel, who has entertained many of us in the media over the past couple of months, especially on his sojourns to the European Poker Tour.

"There's nothing you can do," Schaffel said." It was a sick flop. No regrets. It was a great tournament. I look forward to coming back."

Kevin Schaffel tells us all about it

We look forward to seeing you, Kevin.

Dive over to the chip-count page for, guess what, the chip counts.

As you'll see there, the consolation, at least for us on this blog, is that Schaffel chips went to his fellow PokerStars player Buchman, who can now look down at a stack of about 52 million. That's only a handful behind the chip leader Darvin Moon. Buchman is looking very strong indeed, and was tipped for victory by none other than Greg Raymer, who talked to our video blog team:

***

What else has been happening? Have some colour:

Just like (and I mean, exactly like) the television ratings sensation "Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed", I'm going to tell you how we're working here at PokerStars Blog at this World Series final table. Every hour, one of our two writers people here watches the action at the table and writes the "action" section of our post. At the same time, the other watches everything else and writes the "colour/color" section. We then merge our contributions seamlessly together (look for the give-away "And here's the action from that hour" indicator to spot the joins), and thus the finest tournament coverage from any poker event is born. Oh yeah.

I'm on colour/color duty this hour (and you can guess whether this is the Brit or the American writing by the presence or otherwise of a "u" in that word). But here's the thing: it's pretty dark inside the Penn and Teller Theater and the most colour/color can be found elsewhere. The lobby, for instance, is buzzing with activity as spectators go in search of refreshment. There are several film crews huddling in the same area, grabbing interviews with whoever happens to be passing.

As mentioned previously, many of the players' cheering sections have kitted themselves out in matching livery, meaning its easy to spot who is supporting whom. But even if Joe Cada's supporters weren't dresses as canaries, you'd be able to spot them by their boisterous presence in front of the cameras -- "Ship it one time!" -- and occasional trip to the bar.

Antoine Saout's fans are dressed in the blue of the French football/soccer team, known colloquially as Les Bleus, with their hero's name written across their shoulders and a specially-woven scarf draped nonchalantly there too. There's also a fug of cigarette smoke above most of them, confirming most lazy stereotypes, and I dare say Starbucks is currently restocking their croissant supply.

The French fans were central to the funniest moment from the most recent brief trip to the lobby. A radio crew stopped a group of five or six of them and asked them to sing a song. Not just any song, but the one they'd been using to support Saout from the back balcony. There was no acrimony, but there was a stand-off.

From my viewpoint, which was from behind a big turkey baguette, it seemed as though the French fans didn't understand the request from the radio crew, and the radio crew didn't understand that the French fans didn't understand. They stood there, microphones in hand, preparing to be treated to a raucous chorus of Francais, while the startled rabbits stood in silence.

"Song," said the radio guy. "Sing."
Silence.
"Can. You. Sing. A. Song."
Silence. Then: "No English."
"We know. Can you sing a song."
Silence, etc. Fade to blackout.

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2009 Main Event down to Seven Players

2009 Main Event down to Seven Players

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/do-or-die-poker/~3/q0lXbDm84vs/

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Famous Poker Quotes...

"Sometimes you'll miss a bet, sure, but it's OK to miss a bet. Poker is an art form, of course, but sometimes you have to sacrifice art in favour of making a profit."

------------Mike Caro

Read The Full Article:
http://badbeatsandgreathands.blogspot.com/2008/07/famous-poker-quotes_14.html

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WSOP Main Event: James Akenhead eliminated

It took a few hours, but the 2009 WSOP final table has lost it's first player. That dubious honor goes to the UK's James Akenhead.

It was two big hands against PokerStars qualifier Kevin Schaffel that sent Akenhead to the rail. In the first, Schaffel came in for a raise to 1.1 million and Akenhead called from the blinds. The flop came down [Jd][9c][4c]. Akenhead thought for a moment before leading for 1.6 million. Schaffel barely thought for a second before pushing in for nearly six million more. Akenhead wasted no time in calling and there was little question why. He held [Kh][kc]. Too bad for him, Schaffel held [Ah][Ac].The turn and river blanked out and Schaffel doubled up at exactly the right time.

Kevin Schaffel

That hand left Akenhead with less than six million. After raising and folding one hand, he held 4.5 million and eventually pushed all-in pre-flop with [3d][3c]. Schaffel called him with [9h][9s]. The board ran out [Tc][2c][7h][2s][9d]. Schaffel, meanwhile was up to 19,200,000.

In other news, PokerStars player Joe Cada's downward spiral continues.

In earlier action, Cada came in for a raise and Darvin Moon called out of the blinds.The both checked a flop of [4c][8c][9d]. Moon check-called a bet on the [Ad] turn. On the river, the [4s] Moon led for 2.5 million, Cada thought for a moment and raised to 5.5 million. Moon called and showed [As][Td]. Cada tossed his hand in the muck.

Cada is now the table's short stack with less than 5 million.

Joe Cada

Here's what Dennis Phillips has to say about today's final table action

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WSOP Main Event: Short stack fight back

Let's go back to the end of the last post, and remember what Daniel Negreanu said during the break: "Expect this level to be really nuts," said the Team PokerStars Pro. He knows a thing or two about the game does Kid Poker. The Penn and Teller Theater did indeed go nuts in the past hour, and there was a distinct British accent to the whooping.

James Akenhead came into the final table as the short stack, he got even shorter through the first level, but in one dramatic hand he is back and fighting, thanks to a miraculous three outer. Akenhead had stolen two sets of blinds and antes with his three-million-ish stack but when he shoved again things didn't quite seem such plain sailing. Steven Begleiter called the 4,015,000, two spots to Akenhead's left, but it wasn't done yet: Eric Buchman re-raised, moving a total of 12 million into the middle.

Akenhead, already all in, could do nothing more. And Begleiter seemed furious that he was being forced to fold this one by the bigger stack to his left. But fold he did and the cards were exposed. Akenhead's hopes were hanging by a thread. He had [qh][kc] and Buchman had [ks][ah]. It looked good for Buchman all the way through flop and turn: [2s][3s][jd][kh], leaving Akenhead drawing to three queens. But sure enough, out it popped: [qc] on the river sending the British contingent wild.

A dejected Eric Buchman

And the action wasn't done yet. Two hands later we saw a hand that has us still shaking our heads. Antoine Saout came in for a raise to 850,000 and Darvin Moon called. The flop came down [ks][jh][2c]. There begna a flurry of betting. Saout led, Moon raised to 3.2 million, Saout re-raised, Moon pushed for 7.5 million more and Saout called. Saout had flopped two pair with [js][2h] to Moon's...ace-high with [Ah][4d]. Though Moon turned a wheel draw with the [3d], Saout made a boat on the river with the [2s] and doubled up.

Prior to all that, they had already been mixing it up. Joe Cada and Saout were embroiled in the first pot of note in this hour, with Cada's aggression eventually prevailing. Cada, on the button, raised to 750,000 and Saout called from the small blind. They were alone to a flop of [5s][6c][8s] and Saout seemed to like it, betting around a million. Cada was going nowhere and called to see a turn of [qs]. That scare card slowed down Saout, who checked, and then was forced to fold when Cada bet 1,475,000 at it. One up for Cada.

Saout didn't allow the set-back to affect him for too long, though. The very next hand, he moved all in over the top of Eric Buchman's 750,000 opener. That was good. And then he did something similar again. Kevin Schaffel raised to 750,000 and Saout added another two million. Schaffel wasn't up for that and folded. Saout clawed back everything he had at the start of the orbit, and a little bit more.

The late double up through Moon gave Saout even more, and brought him past 20,000 for the first time. The short stacks are fighting back, leaving Kevin Schaffel and Phil Ivey now at the bottom of the pile. Take a look at the chip counts page to see how all those thrills affected the stacks.

In other news around the room:

Clothes do not make the man. We're nearly certain there's someone--and likely more than a few someones--out there who has one a lot of money on PokerStars while wearing no clothes whatsoever. That said, when it comes to the WSOP final table, there's a thread in this story about the threads on the fans' backs.

In the past couple of years, we have seen a a rising tide of fans who support their man sartorially. The most famous case was Dennis Phillips' Army of Clones who invaded the Penn and Teller theater in 2008.

While no player here has reached Phillips' level of rabid support, several of the remaining nine have clone entourages. With all due apologies to our LAPT and WCOOP correspondent Change100 (who writes the best poker fashion reports on the net), here's a quick breakdown of what and who people are wearing today.

While clothes may be no big deal for the players, you should see how Joe Cada and Eric Buchman warmed up for the final table. Crazy kids.

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Reform and such

So, while the US passed health care reform tonight, I'm celebrating with a SnG on Full Tilt. I wanted to play one of my favorites... the 90 player turbo deep stack knock-out SnG, but that's a little too much commitment for this sleepyhead.

Several people have inquired if I'm going to Vegas this December for the bi-annual blogger tourney. I was planning to go, but recent developments have me thinking I might want to sink the grand I'd like drop in Vegas on a set of photography studio strobes instead. I haven't decided yet (and if I come across a flight under $250, I could be swayed in that direction), but making money from my new passion (photography) seems more of a +EV proposition than my old passion (poker), which tends to be -EV.

That said, I really need a vacation. I wish I would have had the cash on hand to drop on Dave Matthews tickets when they went on presale to the Warehouse fan club. That would have guaranteed my trip. (He's playing with Tim Reynolds the same weekend as the blogger tourney, and in all of the 32 Dave/Dave Matthews Band shows I've seen, none have been of the Dave & Tim variety. I'd really love to see a D&T show.

There we go. First hand VPIP, first hand won.

I forgot how many all-in scoobies play at this hour.

I've finally had some time to play Ultima Online lately. The Halloween quest is pissing me off. I've run it 32 times and I cannot for the life of me get the dream wraith costume reward. Grr.

I went to Starved Rock State Park today in Utica, IL. Beautiful place. We had some unseasonably warm weather here in Chicago today - topped out near 70. Probably the last nice weekend of 2009... and the last nice weekend for many months. The only saving grace I see to look forward to is that the Farmer's Almanac is predicting less snow than usual this year, and after being bombarded the last 2 winters, I'll take it. I hate the cold, too, but in these parts, the world doesn't stop when there's a foot of snow on the ground. It's business as usual - just with a much longer commute.

So, back to Starved Rock - took some pictures. They're up on my Flickr:
Starved Rock Nov 2009

Had some Photoshop fun with one of them - I love it. Feels like it's all tripped out in the 70's:



No, I cannot call a 4xBB PFR with QTo.

Good thing I only played a single table SnG. I'm getting antsy already.

Not much else exciting in my world. Guess I'll talk photography while I blind out of this damn SnG. I'm pretty certain (like 91%) that I'm going to end up going with a set of Alien Bees lights. All of the feedback I've read and heard from people has indicated that they're good lights at a reasonable price, with great customer support. And, they're made in the USA, which to me is a good thing.

Wow, guess you guys really don't want to hear photography talk. The world has saved you - I'm out of the SnG. :P

Ahh well. Scratched that itch. Time to go read a little bit more about the physics of light, and pass out. :)

Read The Full Article:
http://hellaholdem.blogspot.com/2009/11/reform-and-such.html

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WSOP Main Event: Analysing the opening exchanges

There were two ways these opening exchanges were going to go: cautious or very cautious. "Have we seen a turn yet?" asked a colleague in the press box, approaching an hour into play. "No," was the answer to that, hinting at the trepidation among these nine, none of which could in any way be described as a nit. (The first turn card did eventually come, at 2.05pm. It was followed by our first river card and our first showdown. Read about it below.)

The first verbal declaration of all in came from Phil Ivey, reraising Jeff Shulman but putting what looked like an agonising decision on Joe Cada in the small blind. We've seen quite a bit of Cada over the past couple of months, most notably in Barcelona and London on the European Poker Tour, and he wouldn't stall without good reason. Eventually he passed up the chance to knock out the superstar, perhaps fearing the consequences should he double him up. That moved Ivey up to about 10 million, but which keeps him in the bottom three in chips.

It's difficult to gauge how the game stands from those chip counts at the moment, although they can loosely be split into three groups of three (with a bit of blurring at the boundaries). At the top, Darvin Moon, Eric Buchman and Steven Begleiter are playing a different game to the rest. They are comfortable and can still afford to take it easy. They can call in position with marginal holdings, hoping to hit a flop. Or they can bully with a re-raise whenever they like, especially from the three players immediately below them in the counts.

Those three, Shulman, Cada and Kevin Schaffel, are probably being forced into making the most poker decisions around the table. They still have a stack big enough to scare the leaders into getting too deeply embroiled, but with around 10 million apiece, they're often in a tough spot. They can afford to fold to a re-raise, but don't want to be bleeding too many chips lest they end up in the category below.

There we find the short stacks: Ivey, Antoine Saout and, in particular, James Akenhead. The three of them will have spent a deal of time over the past couple of months planning their shoving strategy: what hand is good enough to re-raise all in pre-flop. They came into today's play knowing that subtlety was going to be difficult; they needed to find a spot to get their chips in.

We saw Ivey do it, and Saout has also open-shoved pre-flop to take down a pot. But we must assume that Akenhead has been utterly card dead. He's yet to win a hand and has dropped to below four million, which means he is all in or fold until he doubles up or departs. One of those is likely to happen in the coming hour or so.

Once that happens, the game will probably open up, and even Daniel Negreanu agreed. "Expect this level to be really nuts," said the Team PokerStars Pro. At the moment, though, the stacks are too tentatively positioned for this to be a free-for-all. And there ends this episode of cod analysis.

WSOP Final Table 2009

Let's hear some action from that past hour:

We know a flute with no holes is not a flute, and a donut with no hole is a danish. What is an hour with no flops? Well, not entirely that interesting (and not nearly as tasty as a danish would be right now). The last hour of action was nearly flop-free.

When Joe Cada came in for a raise to 750,000, Steven Begleiter re-raised to 2,250,000 from the small blind and picked up the pot. On the very next hand, Begleiter raised from the button and won the blinds and antes again. When Phil Ivey raised the next hand to 800,000, Eric Buchman pushed him off with a raise to 3 million. Then Ivey came in for 800,000 and picked up the blinds and antes. Buchman did the same thing on the next hand.

Finally, we got around to seeing our very first turn of the day. Eric Buchman came in for a raise to 800,000 and got a call from Jeff Shulman. On a flop of [Kh][7d][7s], Buchman checked, Shulman bet 1,750,000, and Buchman called. Both players checked the turn [Th] and river [3c]. Buchman showed [Qh][Qd] for the win.

One hand later, the players went on their first break of the day.

One of the most active players from the early skirmishes has been Joe Cada. Here he shares his thoughts on the final table with the video blog team:

Watch WSOP 2009: Joe Cada on PokerStars.tv

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