Posts Tagged ‘WSOP’

Barry Shulman Beats Daniel Negreanu for WSOPE Main Event Title

Posted By : Comb Over-Under October 2nd, 2009

barry shulmanWith a massive come from behind victory, Barry Shulman (father of November Nine’s Jeff Shulman) took down Daniel Negreanu in heads up play at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.

Coming into heads up action, Negreanu was on fire. He had sent 6 of the 7 knock-outs to the rails himself — this all happened after he came in with a massive short stack (but it’s all in how you use it. Right, ladies?). He also held a dominant chip lead over the elder Shulman.

Shulman, however, wasn’t over-matched or intimidated. The showdown had some monster hands (Full house Aces/Jacks over Trip Jacks, pocket pairs squaring off in the final hand) and it was wildly entertaining. It was a matchup of skilled players, playing without pressure.

This was Shulman’s second bracelet – his first coming in 2001. We’ll see if it could be the ‘Year of the Shulmans’ as Jeff hits the felt in 3rd place for the WSOP Main Event Final Table in November.

The field of players of the Euro-Main-Event was only 334, but it’s considered by many to be a much tougher pool of talent. The final table had big names, drama and two well-known guys heads up. It’s a dream matchup for the WSOPE Organizers and another good showing for poker in general.

Breakdown of World Series of Poker Europe Main Event Final Table Payouts:

1. Barry Shulman – £801,603
2. Daniel Negreanu – £495,589
3. Praz Bansi – £360,887
4. Jason Mercier – £267,267
5. Markus Ristola – £200,367
6. Chris Bjorin – £150,267
7. Antoine Saout – £114,228
8. Matt Hawrilenko – £87,074
9. James Akenhead – £66,533

That’s a lot of poundage.

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Final Table is On for the World Series of Poker Europe

Posted By : Comb Over-Under October 1st, 2009

wsopeUPDATE: Since time of writing, Negreanu has been powering through the event, and is now 2nd in chips.

The Final Table of the World Series of Poker Europe is set. There are some recognizable faces and dominant players.

The £10,000 buy-in event has been gaining steam and prestige over the last few years, and notable pros making the final table does wonders for the event’s credibility.

The Players:

Jason Mercier 3,198,000 Chips
James Akenhead 1,398,000 Chips
Praz Bansi 1,160,000 Chips
Barry Shulman 1,090,000 Chips
Markus Ristola 784,000 Chips
Antoine Saout 701,000 Chips
Matt Hawrilenko 674,000 Chips
Chris Bjorin 518,000 Chips
Daniel Negreanu 438,000 Chips

Saout is on an absolute tear this year. He is essentially in 2 final tables at once – the biggest final tables in poker.

The father/son poker prowess is strong in the Shulman family. With Barry (father) in the WSOPE final and Jeff (son) in the WSOP November Nine.

You really can’t count out a guy like Negreanu, when he’s in an event like this.

Updates to come soon.

Here is the payout structure:

£ 801,603
£ 495,589
£ 360,887
£ 267,267
£ 200,367
£ 150,267
£ 114,228
£ 87,074
£66,533

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Zimbler Breaks Record For Longest Poker Session, Does Gumby Impression

Posted By : BungalowOfCards September 25th, 2009

zimblerThe World Series Of Poker Europe isn’t all about tight hands and pressure betting, it turns out. Paul Zimbler proved that Thursday (or should I say on Tuesday through Thursday) by successfully breaking the world record for the longest recorded continuous poker session at London’s Casino at the Empire.

Zimbler played 183 heads up sessions over more than 74 hours, winning a remarkable 102 of those and altogether raising an impressive £35,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Some of that total was donated by the substantial lineup of pros Zimbler faced, including Doyle Bruson, Annette Obrestad, Phil Hellmuth, and Mike Matusow.  Matusow had by far the toughest match, playing Zimbler in the 74th hour and through the threshold of the record, which now stands at 74 hours, 20 minutes and 21 seconds.

Matusow employed a mock-him-so-he-keeps-playing strategy, which—combined with the large crowd of people hollering support at him—might have been the main reason Zimbler was in visibly rough shape by the time he broke the record.  Or maybe it was that he hadn’t slept in three calendar days.

It should go without saying that you should not attempt a record like this yourself.  That said, if you were thinking about it, let that dream go.  I get that you have played some epic sessions, but Zimbler was playing in a substantially more draining environment than your den, and was wearing clothes, not a robe.  And let’s not forget he was doing it for the children.

Good work, Paul.  Now get some sleep.

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Made-For-TV Caesars Cup Makes for Great TV

Posted By : BungalowOfCards September 24th, 2009

Caesars CupOn Friday morning pros attending the World Series of Poker Europe will wake up and rip the wrapping off a brand-new event in the poker world, the Caesars Cup.

The Caesars Cup is essentially a carbon copy of the PGA’s Ryder Cup, which has successfully attracted a substantial fanbase to golf’s fifty billionth event of the year. Young, popular pros have been conscripted to 8-player teams captained by Annette Obrestad (Europeans) and Daniel Negreanu (Americas).

The awkwardly-named teams will play through a variety of different permutations of doubles No-Limit Hold’em, with a bit of heads up thrown into the mix to guarantee lively action.  The format is—not unlike the Ryder Cup—somewhat hard to grasp at first, but the appeal is simple: it’s us vs them (you decide which team “us” is for you).

Here’s why I love the idea: poker, like golf, tennis, and other individual sports, is limited to the extent to which it can tell a compelling story by the success of the major names that are playing in that particular event.  In other words, a classic case of the No Tiger Woods, No Interest Syndrome.  Just ask any of the qualifiers for the final table at the Borgata Poker Open (you’ll need to look them up), also going on this week.

By assembling teams made up of well-known pros around inclusive international labels, the event cashes in on fans who have been trained on years of cheering for their favorite sports team, and who will love to see the players work together to win bragging rights, and play entertaining poker.  And if the first Ryder Cup was any indication, they’ll be playing hard.

In case you’re interested, the players involved include heavy hitters Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harmer, Doyle Brunson (Americas), Peter Eastgate, Patrick Antonius, and Dario Minieri (Europeans).

ESPN will be broadcasting all the action as part of their World Series of Poker Europe coverage.  Be sure to tune in to watch history unfold, and because you know you want to.

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Erik Cajelais Wins WSOP Europe Bracelet in Mixed Omaha/Hold’em Event

Posted By : Comb Over-Under September 24th, 2009

cajelaisCongrats to Erik Cajelais on taking down the  £2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha Event #2 at the World Series of Poker Europe.

The Canadian poker pro made short work of the final table – doubling up and dominating in less than 3 hours. Cajelais played aggressively and knocked out Richard Gryko, Men Nguyen and Robin Keston to take the game to heads up.

Mats Gavatin, who opened the day as chip leader, lost a big pot to Cajelais early in the day and only lasted five minutes in heads up play.

It was a dominating performance, accompanied with a run of great cards and aggressive play.

To go with the bracelet, Cajelais pulled £104,677. Not bad for a brisk afternoon of poker.

Other notables in this tourney were Howard Lederer (9th for 9,117), Nikolay Evdakov and Vitaly Lunkin.

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Hellmuth to Coach Jeff Shulman Before the November Nine

Posted By : Comb Over-Under September 23rd, 2009

ShulmanAlthough Phil Hellmuth isn’t a member of the final table of the WSOP Main Event in November, he’s going to have a protégé hitting the felts.

Jeff Shulman, currently 4th with 19,580,000 chips, has enlisted the poker brat as a coach for the upcoming final table action. No matter what you think of Hellmuth’s antics, he’s obviously an accomplished player. With 75 in-the-money finishes through the years at WSOP events, Hellmuth also has 11 bracelets. That’s good for #1 in the industry.

Shulman thinks they have similar playing styles, and thinks he could use some pointers in short-handed play without drastically changing anything.

Don’t expect him to be a loud mouth, though. Shulman is usually a quiet player with little to say on the tables. Shulman finished in 7th place in 2000 and looks to do better than that this year. This is the 4th time he’s played at WSOP final table.

Do you think this will payoff for Shulman? If you’ve made it to the final table, you’ve got to be doing something correctly.

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Kelly’s Comeback at WSOP Europe Makes Newcomer Dunlop Flush

Posted By : BungalowOfCards September 21st, 2009

JP KellyYou can’t blame Fabien Dunlop for getting a little overzealous.

Having come out of relative obscurity to play to the Main Event Final Table of the World Series of Poker Europe, Dunlop was looking great going into the heads-up showdown, holding nearly a 3-1 advantage over his savvy competition, J.P. Kelly.

Presumably sweating bullets composed entirely of smaller sweat bullets, Dunlop was caught with a weak kicker early in the heads up play, allowing Kelly to suddenly double up and establish parity between the two players.

Dunlop and Kelly exchanged blows for a while, with the final major exchange coming in a nightmare scenario for Dunlop, as his suited J-2 of diamonds were thoroughly dominated by Kelly’s K-8 of the same suit.  When diamonds came on the flop the dream was truly dead, and only moments later Kelly was trying on jewelry.

Kudos to Dunlop for an impressive run—passing players like Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, who bowed out at 15th—and even more impressive £84,512 win, but especially to Kelly who has now won a WSOP bracelet on both sides of the Atlantic this year, after winning in a $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament in Las Vegas this year.

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Durrrr Off the List for 2009 Hall of Fame

Posted By : Comb Over-Under September 18th, 2009

durrrrEarlier today, we looked at the potential inductees into the 2009 class of the Poker Hall of Fame. Here’s a poker notable that is not on that list.

Tom Dwan didn’t make the cut for the 2009 Poker Hall of Fame inductions.

Apparently durrr was in the 10-man preliminary list, but has been omitted from the voting selection pool. After some more consideration, I think this is a little odd. Singling out durrrr is strange, because he probably wouldn’t have gotten the 75% of votes needed anyways because he hasn’t stood the test of time portion of the Hall’s criteria.

Equally interesting is the fact that he’s on the list to begin with. It really speaks to poker’s accessibility. If you can be in the conversation of Hall of Fame after some intense time in the spotlight (coming out of almost nowhere), it’s far from inconceivable for anyone to step up to that kind of level.

Truth be told, I like watching Dwan check-raise with 3-5 off suit into a $135,000 pot as much as the next guy, but does that equate Hall of Fame this early in his career? Well, as those involved have spoken, no.

Will Dwan eventually get into the Hall of Fame? Probably, yes. How’s that for a bold statement?

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Darvin Moon, Let Us Seduce You

Posted By : BungalowOfCards September 18th, 2009

darvin-moonDarvin Moon is building a name in the poker world that rivals his surname’s prominence in the night sky.

After bringing the competition at the World Series of Poker to its knees, Moon is poised to sit down and use his monster chip lead to win the thing outright in November.  And while he is the least experienced player at the table, you just can’t argue with the guy holding 30% of the chips.

But that’s just the beginning: in the four months since the much-ballyhooed Final Table was determined, Moon has had every opportunity to sign a major promotional deal with the online poker site of his choosing. Instead Moon has remained a lone gunner, stating that “there is not enough money in the world for someone to tell me what to do.”

Well, we here at CarbonPoker are not about to take no for an answer.  You hear that, Darvin?  We like you just the way you are.  With that in mind here are the

Top Five Reasons You Should Join CarbonPoker, Darvin Moon

5. Holy!  We Like the Saints Tooooo!

We just love that you wear a Saints hat while you play. If you join us we’ll put out a hit on Drew Brees and have you starting in no less than a year.

4. CarbonPoker is Elderly-Friendly

Everyone is talking about how you learned to play from your grandfather.  Well, sign on with us and we’ll open the internet’s first 80+ poker room, featuring on-screen reminders of what the hands are, 0.01 cent Sit and Gos, and weekly online garage sales.  It’ll be the bees knees.

3. Goatees = Nice

If you become Carbon’s number one man, we’ll institute a mandatory goatee policy for all employees.  But none will be as bushy as yours, Darvin, promise.

2.  Logging is For Winners

We’re very impressed that you own a logging company, Darvin.  We hate forests.  We’ll clear-cut the Eastern seaboard if that would get you on board.

1. We Like Being Told What to Do

Don’t worry about us telling you what to do, Darvin.  With your enticing combination of looks, personality, and enthusiasm, we won’t need a marketing strategy with you on our side.  Just undo that lower button on your golf shirt and accept the keys to the CarbonPoker vault.

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World Series of Poker Europe Set to Kick Off

Posted By : Comb Over-Under September 18th, 2009

wsopeThe fancier, better-dressed cousin of the (real) World Series of Poker is hitting the felts today with the first event. The 2009 WSOP Europe will award 4 bracelets in London between now and October 1.

The events are:

£1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
£2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha
£5,000 Pot Limit Omaha
£10,000 World Championship No-Limit Hold’em Main Event

Also included is a Million Dollar freeroll featuring online qualifiers. All of these events will be going down at London Clubs International.

There will be 10 hours of ESPN coverage of the WSOPE included in the regularly scheduled episodes of this summer’s earlier events.

Watch for our coverage of these events with winners, losers and other European info.

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