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Phil Galfond wins $5k PLO with rebuys

lpblog, June 17

Event 28, the $5000 Pot Limit Omaha with rebuys, had a very nice final table once again. Woud Phil Hellmuth win his first non-hold'em bracelet and his 12th in total? At least he gets to share another record, he made his 40th final table, as much as TJ Cloutier. Or would Johnny Chan get his 11th to share the record with Hellmuth once again? Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond started the day as chipleader, just ahead of other high-stakes internetpro Brian "tsarrast" Rast:

We see a lot of action, double-ups, most through the stack of Brian Rast who exits the table first in 9th place, after a few "awful plays" according to who else but Phil Hellmuth. I guess the other players weren't sad to see Hellmuth leave just after that with AKT4 against AAK4 of Benyamine.

Daniel Negreanu wont win another 200k from Phil Ivey this time (they made a bet of 200k per bracelet) when he got knocked out by Galfond in 7th place. The same Phil Galfond that later on cripples Johnny Chan (whose haircolor makes you wonder wether the guy is actually colorblind, see picture) before David Benyamine knocks him out with aces up. Adam Hourani than chips down David Benyamine, to later on knock him out with a rivered straight vs flopped top set.

Heads-up starts with Phil Galfond and Adam Hourani, Galfond has about a 2 to 1 chiplead. A very long and tiring heads-up start, with Galfond remaining the chiplead, with both playing smallball and we rarely get to see a rivercard. In over 100 cards dealth, Adam Hourani was all-in 6 times, Phil Galfond 0 times, and Hourani seems to be getting under more pressure than ever. At a certain point, Galfond has a 12:1 chiplead, and not much after that it was all over. At a they got all-in, both having top pair, but Hourani had the better kicker. The on the turn made Phil Galfond two pair and the at the river helped neither, meaning Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond wins his first bracelet and $817,781 !

By: Pindarots

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$10000 Heads-up Results

lpblog, June 17

The $10,000 World Championship Heads-up event is definitely one of the most exciting tournaments in my opinion. Its just great to see so many players facing each other in the heads-up. 256 was the number of registered players, so that makes 8 rounds for the eventual finalists.

A good number of LPers took part in this tourney. Raszi, Myth, Rekrul, mig and Cutsss were those I recall seeing the names. I'm not sure if anyone else took part.

Mig and rekrul, lost in the 1st round. rekrul, who was the last year's champion was eliminated by whitelime aka Emil Patel. I'm sure you know but just in case you don't, Whitelime is a very good online player and is very good at heads-up too. He was also semifinalist of the FTP $25k heads-up tournament. Cutsss lost in the 2nd round. The best results came with Ket and Raszi. Both lost in the 3rd round and finished in the money. Ket lost against Vanessa Selbst. The nice thing is that they eliminated good opponents in their way. Ket eliminated Genius28 South and Raszi took out Cole "CTS". (thx Ket)

The final four were Kenny Tran, Alec Torelli, Vanessa Selbst and Jonathan Jaffe.

Alec Torelli > Vanessa Selbst
Kenny Tran > Jonathan Jaffe

Its the second year in a row that Vanessa makes it to the semifinal of the heads-up tournament.

Kenny Tran ended up winning the whole thing. The final was played in a bo3 match, but Tran won it in straight matches. He said in the second he gambled a bit more because he was ahead 1-0, and that was the reason he chased the nutflush that ended up being the final hand of the tournament. Congratulations for Kenny Tran and his first bracelet!

You can check a bit of Kenny Tran's results at former WSOP events clicking here. You can see he had some deep finishes, so it's great that he finally won his bracelet!

Final 8:

By:Raidern

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Greenstein ships the Razzzzz

lpblog, June 16

A lot of people think Razz is the most boring game of poker, but Barry Greenstein couldn't care less. The man with one of the least exciting faces of the pokerworld knows the meaning of patience, making Seven Card Razzzzz (it's like a lowball Seven Card Stud, the lowest hand wins) just the thing for him. Stamina was never a problem for Barry, he is said to have played 3 days straight in his younger days! Not many people were surprised to see him on the final table, but there was at least one surprising player there: Archie Karas, one of the greatest gamblers of all time, even more of a degen than ElkY, so the legend goes! He made $50 into 44 million, made $300.000 bets on dice (back then, it was a lot more than it is now), he had very, very poor bankrollmanagement (non-existent really, of course he went busto more than once), and was said to be one of the best heads-up pokerplayers in the world (he's beaten Chip Reese, Johnny Chan, Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss, etc more than once!). He even played 10k/20k limit poker over a decade ago! His recklessness in the past has given him the nickname "The World's Biggest Gambler", and now he seems to be making his comeback.

Unfortunately for Karas, his moment of fame didn't take very long. When he was all-in against Brandon Leeds he made an 8-low, but Leeds made a 6-low, meaning Archie Karas was out in 7th place, giving him $19,478. Let's just hope he wont waste it on craps or baccarat again! Other players get busted by Chris Viox, Barry Greenstein and Chris Klodnicki, the three of them remain. It takes over 4 hours before we get to the heads-up stage, Greenstein still dominating the play, but it was Chris Klodnicki who had to knock out Chris Voix, when they got all-in. Voix was well ahead, when he made his 7-low (A-2-4-6-7) against Klodnicki's 9-low (9-5-4-3-2) with one card to come. The 7th card didn't improve Voix's hand, meaning Klodnicki could make a close escape with a A, 6 or 7 (remember, straights don't matter in Razz, they're still low), and he did just that: the on the River (hmm, Barry should have been there ) sent Chris Voix out in 3rd place.

This meant Barry Greenstein and Chris Klodnicki were heads-up, with about a 2.5:1 chiplead for Barry. 2 hours of heads-up later, both get all-in: Klodnicki couldn't show any better than a K-low, meaning Barry Greenstein wins his 3rd bracelet and $157,619 for the effort.

Now don't get overenthusiastic Barry!

By: Pindarots

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Hinkle Wins, Myth Cashes

lpblog, June 15

Blair Hinkle won today the event 23 of the World Series of Poker. It was the $2000 NLHE event.

Well, if we can put everything he did in this final table in a single word, it would have to be "domination". Hinkle alone eliminated 6 out of the 8 other guys in the final table. We can also say it has been an interesting day for the family "Hinkle". I'm not sure if you remember, but Blair's brother, Grant Hinkle, was the winner of event 2 of this years WSOP. So yes, they are the first pair of brothers to ever win bracelets in the same year.

There are some other nice records out there involving brothers, like two in the same final table of main event, but never before a pair of siblings won bracelets in the same year.

Corwin Cole, aka Myth also did play this event, but he was eliminated late in day 2, as 17th place, for the prize of $16,877. His elimination came by the hands of the event winner, Blair Hinkle. Myth moved all-in with AJ when Hinkle had AK. There was no interference from the board and the Hinkle's king kicked Myth out.

Check the final results of this event:

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Max Pescatori scoops his 2nd bracelet

lpblog, June 15

What was supposed to be Allen Cunningham's 6th bracelet wasnt meant to be, Max Pescatori took it all in this semi-interesting final table of the $2500 Pot-Limit Holdem/Omaha event. 5 of our final 9 had already cashed in this WSOP before, yet none of them had a 2008 bracelet on his wrist yet. Max Pescatori and Allen Cunningham both know how it feels to win a bracelet, Minh Ly was the only one who had made a final table on the 2008 World Series of Poker. Chipleader is the relatively unknown Kyle Kloeckner.

Chipcounts:

Really quite a boring match in the beginning, all eyes seem to be on Allen Cunningham. We see coinflips, dominated hands and the usual 2 pair vs set etc. Oh, and a suckout here and there, like when Cunningham makes a runner-runner straight with A6s against the AQo of Depa, the board even brings 5-4-2 all spades with Depa being the only one with a spade, but Cunningham manages to escape with a and on the turn and river. That was the start of quite some action around Cunningham, ending in a 4th place elimination when he ran into the top set of Kyle Kloeckner on Omaha. Not much later on Hold'em, we saw Kloeckner putting Greg Hurst all-in again, this time with A7 vs K7, knocking out Hurst in 3rd place.

Heads-up was between Kyle Kloeckner and Max Pescatori, with a small chiplead for Kloeckner, but when Kloeckner check-raises Pescatori to 350k, Pescatori moves all-in, forcing Kloeckner to fold. This gave him the chiplead and when both flop 2 pair in Omaha it is all over. On a board, Pescatori had flopped 2 pair, while Kloeckner had bottom 2 pair. The and on turn and river didn't help any, and Max Pescatori wins his second bracelet of his carreer and $246,471 with it. He won his first bracelet at the same day the Italian football-squad won the World Championship. This time they can only cheer for the bracelet. Like any real pirate, he just had to show his scarrr!

Let's hope the next events are gonna be a bit more exciting, although I can't say I'm really looking forward to the $1500 Seven Card Razzzzzz of tonight

By: Pindarots

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Scott Seiver wins the $5000 NLHE event

lpblog, June 14

Scott Seiver is the winner of the $5000 NLHE event, the same event I mentioned a couple posts ago, where n0rthface finished in the money. Among the finalists were internet pros Adam "csimmsux" Geyer and Scott "SCTrojans" Freeman. Take a look:

Seiver had a sick day 2, thats the explanation for his nice lead. To make things worse (for his opponents) he started the final table winning 6 out of the 11 initial hands of the day. He also didn't have any major problem during the final table, until he finally got to the heads-up against Dave Seidman. He (Seidman) actually "joined" the game again after he was double up by Seiver, before that he was kind of in the middle with the other guys. He went all-in preflop with only to see he was behind of Seiver's kings. However, a seven on the river gave him the Jack high straight, making his chips go over a million.

After this chips-double-up we can say that both guys dominated the table. They, together, were responsible for 7 of the eliminations. All the players, except for Anders Henriksson were eliminated by one or other.

The heads-up itself lasted something around 45min, and the final hand of the tournament was the following:

Seiver moved all-in after being reraised by Seidman on the . He was ahead with , while Seidman's cards were . The turn was a and the river . Seidman's hand didn't improve and he was eliminated as 2nd for the prize of $482,372.

Scott Seiver wins the whole thing, plus $755,891 and the bracelet. Its his 3rd cash in this years WSOP.

Here are the final results:

By:Raidern

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Voertmann wins $3k HORSE event, Mig cashes 25th

lpblog, June 14

Once again we see an example of poor planning so it seems, again we have a final day which was supposed to be a final table, but we ended with 16 players instead of the intended 8. Chipleader of those 16 was Marcel Luske, who has been Holland's hope for years now, maybe this time we get our precious first bracelet? It was looking good, but still 15 players to defeat. Within 2 hours we got down to our final 8. Most shortstacks got busted, of the 8 shortest stacks starting the final 2 tables, 7 went out before the final table, only Rostislav Tsodikov survived, switching places with Blair Rodman.

This means the final 8 starting the final table were:

It wasnt long untill Luske regained the chiplead, and things were looking good when he knocked out Hoyt Corkins at 4th place, when they got all-in when Luske flopped to pair against the midpair+gutshot for Corkins. No help and Corkins was out of there. Lots of action follows 3handed with Jens Voertmann and Doug Ganger both in as well. Luske's stack changed more than Pamela Anderson changes breastsize. We see his stack crumble when his king-high flush gets beaten by the full house of Ganger, or get back up when he hits a straight in Stud-8 against Ganger's two pair. Then again he loses some pots in Hold'em, only to get his chips back in Razz and Stud. A great bluff while on Hold'em (he had Q6o with no help from the board) brings him back to an average stack, and after that we see a misread by Voertmann in Razz (he had a Q low while he thought he had something better, giving a huge pot to Luske with J-low) gives Luske the chiplead, only to get his stack down when Ganger shows aces full in Omaha-8. Again we see the same stuff: cripple, double, cripple, it's really sick, but when he finally ran into the aces of Jens Voertmann it was all over, he didn't get any improvement from his pair of 9's in Stud-8 and Marcel Luske was eliminated in 3rd place, showing a great deal of fighting spirit, and more ups and downs than an above average rollercoasterride, but unfortunately it wasnt enough.

This left Jens Voertmann and Doug Ganger fighting for the title. Voertmann started with a 2:1 chiplead, and it wasn't long before they got all-in in Stud-8, Voertmann showed the better 2-pair (J's and 5's to Ganger's 9's and 8's), thus eliminating Ganger in second place and claiming his first WSOP bracelet, and $298,253

Final results:

Last but definately not least, James "Mig" Mackey managed to cash for the 2nd time this WSOP, finishing 25th after being about 8th stack at the end of day 1. Mig won $6,284 for his effort.

By: Pindarots

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Vanessa Selbst and Peachy

lpblog, June 13

Wait. This isn't a post about some story between them. It's just that the first part is about Vanessa Selbst and the second part is about n0rthface/Peachy.

Sooo Vanessa Selbst is the winner of event 19, the $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha. She overcame a field of 759 players to win the 1st prize of $227,905. Second place was australian player Jamie Pickering, who received $145,459 for the 2nd place.

It definitely was a weird final table, especially the heads-up. Pickering had drank a bit too much and was kinda happy. At one point during the heads-up he went until the turn without checking his cards. Once he checked he said "oh shit! I'm dead" and gave up his cards. There was even an unscheduled 15min break to calm people down.

Here is the final hand:

limped pot -> flop

Selbst bets 90,000
Pickering look his cards and goes all-in.
Selbst calls

Seblst:
Pickering:

Turn:
River:

Vanessa's hand holds and she wins it all! Take a look at the final results:

Now let's move a bit to the Event 21, a LPer cashed there.

EVENT #21

Eric Liu aka n0rthface/Peachy_keen did play the $5000 No Limit Hold'em and he finished in the money. I couldn't really track him well, but it seems like he had finished day 1 below average (21,000 when avg was like 30,000 I think). On day two I could only find these two hands (when he was close to elimination)

Eric Liu raised to 20,000 under the gun and Jon Van Fleet made the call. Noah Boeken moved all in for his last 33,000 and Liu called. Van Fleet then moved all in himself, inducing Liu to fold, and Boeken's needed help against Van Fleet's . The flop didn't offer much help but the on the turn and on the river gave Boeken the runner-runner flush and the triple-up.

and his elimination hand

Jacobo Fernandez raised to 22,000 under the gun and Eric Liu moved all in for his last 90,000. Fernandez called and his red eights pipped Liu's black fives . Fernandez hit a set on the , which he needed because the turn was the . Liu needed to hit a miracle five on the river to stay alive but it was the that appeared and Liu was eliminated.

So Eric finished 28th for $16,147. Congratz Peachy!

Event 21 is now on the last day, the final table, and we are surely making a post on that later!

By:Raidern

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Daniel Negreanu wins $2k Limit Hold'em

lpblog, June 13

The second Limit Hold'em event would have had one of the worst final tables of the year, if only Daniel Negreanu wasnt on it! He's the big favorite for the title for sure, although David "DB" Baker starts as the chipleader. He's got quite some experience as well, with about 800k tournament earnings. The other familiar name is Fu Wong, who finished 2nd to Eric Brooks in the $10k Seven Card Stud-event. The other people on the table are not really known by the general public, all are on their first WSOP-final table, so all eyes are on KidPoker today! There was a lot of crowd, most of it because Daniel was at the final table, otherwise we'd have seen only those fanclubs at this limit game

Chipcounts starting the day:

Blinds started at 5k/10k. Fu Wong was the first of the three favorites to go out, when he got all-in with an openended against Negreanu's top pair, he didnt manage to catch his straight. David Baker and Daniel Negreanu were the top 2 stacks througout most of the final table, though Baker's stack began to crumble, when he got called down with AK-high by Negreanu, who won the pot. Not much after that he got caught with his pants down again, when he bet all the way into Ugur Marangoz, who showed pocket fours for 2 pair (paired board, 4 overcards to his fours). Baker mucked again and lost another big pot. When he finally got into another big pot with Negreanu it was all over for Baker. Negreanu raises preflop, Baker calls, the flop brings and Negreanu bets, Baker cals. The turn brings a , Negreanu bets, Baker raises, Negreanu calls, but when the river brings a Negreanu puts Baker all-in, who calls seeing that Negreanu just made his straight with his QJo.

So the heads-up battle begins between Daniel Negreanu and Ugur Marangoz (who works as a poker room manager at the Mirage). It took only 15 minutes to end the fight. When Daniel Negreanu flops trips, both check, the turn brings a blank and both check, with the river (3 hearts on the table), Ugur Marangoz bets, Negreanu raises him all-in and Marangoz makes the call. Negreanu shows his trip 5's and wins his fourth bracelet and $204,874 . That amount will be almost doubled, by a generous Phil Ivey, with whom Daniel had made a bet, they'd pay eachother 200k for each bracelet won! The first thing Negreanu says when he won "Me-1, Ivey-0!", and while making the victory photo: "Hang on, I've got to text Ivey!"

And of course, kudos to Negreanu's mother, who stood by her son during the event as always, and makes him a vegan meal every day, he couldn't have done it without her!

Final results:

By: Pindarots

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Matusow wins $5k 2-7 Lowball event!

lpblog, June 12

An interesting line-up to say the least, the $5k 2-7 Lowball w/Rebuys always gets his famous faces at the final table. Partly because it's a game not many people play, and partly because the buy-in, along with the fact that it's a rebuy, causes people to pay 3.2 times the original buy-in on average, thus making the average cost of competing in this event about $16.000! With 85 entrants and a total of 272 rebuys and add-ons, we get to see a decent prizepool of over 1.7 million dollars, not bad eh?

So another sick final table, only 2 of the 7 haven't won a bracelet yet (David Benyamine and Tony G) while all of them are familiar faces to the general public. For Erick Lindgren this is the third time this year he makes the final day, finishing 1st in event 4 and 10th in event 12. Tom "durrrr" Dwan fell just short of this final table btw, when he got knocked out 8th.

So chipcounts at the final table:

Those who didnt have a bracelet were out pretty quickly, Benyamine and Tony G busted out first, so we'd be sure to have player win his 2nd or 3rd bracelet. Meanwhile all players are chatting along, which makes Mike "The Mouth" Matusow feel like he's in his natural habitat. With him, Lisandro and Greenstein being the last 3 standing, play continues for over 4 hours like this. Matusow, as calm as ever: "You ain't gonna get in my head like you did before," Mike Matusow said to Jeff Lisandro. "I'm not tired now. You ain't gettin' in my head like you did. "Nope, you're gonna donk it off to me, and then you're going to say 'oh well.' I got all day. I mean, I tried to bluff one time. I'm 0-for-1. I'm about ready to try number two. I can't handle it no more.".

Than we see some more action. First we see Barry Greenstein all-in, losing to Jeff Lisandro because he drew a pair vs the ace low of Lisandro. He finished 3rd.

This means Jeff Lisandro and Mike Matusow are heads-up for the title, both with about equal stack. With tabletalk from Matusow going up, so was his chipstack, more and more winning the big pots off Lisandro. When they finally got all-in for the title, Lisandro announched he'd draw one, while leaving 9-6-5-3 behind. Matusow considered his options, with Q-8-7-4-3 he could go either way, either draw the Q or not, he decided to stand pat after all. That meant that if Lisandro would draw a pair or Q or higher, Matusow would win his 3rd bracelet, and it was just that, when the came down, Mike Matusow won his 3rd bracelet and $537,862 with it.

Final results:

By: Pindarots

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