H.o.r.s.e.

[JasonEvans]

This is the real World Championship. The randomness of all those lunatics playing in the $10k event gets taken out by the $50k buy-in. Not at all surprisingly, the cream is rising to the top.

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/event.asp?tourneyID=3466&groupid=309

The current top ten in chips are:

Eli Elezra
Bruno Fitoussi (who??)
David Oppenhiem
Phil Ivey (greatest in the world and it ain't even close)
Mike "the mouth" Matusow
Annie Duke (along with Violette, the best female player in the world)
David Singer
Greg Raymer (note: I don't believe Hachem has shown up at the Series yet this year)
Gavin Smith
Barry Greenstein (the "Robin Hood" of poker)
Chip Reece (defending champ in this event) is not far behind.

DAMN!!!

-Jason "I would kill to sit down with those guys-- but my stack would get killed if I did ;) " Evans

[JasonEvans]

Check out the makeup of two of the tables just a few minutes ago:

Table 41-
1. Greg Raymer
2. Chad Brown
3. Tony G
4. Phil Hellmuth
5. Erik Seidel
6. Carlos Mortonsen
7. Cyndy Violette
8. Eli Elezra

Table 29-
1. Michael Mizrachi
2. Howard Lederer
3. Scotty Nguyen
4. Ted Lawson
5. Chris Reslock
6. Phil Laak
7. Joe Tehan
8. Ted Forrest

--Jason "if you love poker, then you know how sick those two tables are" Evans

[JasonEvans]

Funny little story-- apparently when they sat down on Sunday, Todd Brunson found himself at his father's (Doyle) table. The tourney has a rule about placing family members at the same table early in a tournament so they moved Todd. Instead, they sat him at a table with TJ Cloutier, Phil Ivey, Mike Sexton, and Dewey Tomko.

As you can imagine, Todd was none too pleased ;)

-Jason "yes, I am a little bit into this event ;) " Evans

[Windsor]

Personal Trivia: My daughter's father made it to the final table in the 7 card stud event...busted out in 6th place. What scares me is my daughter can beat him (and yes, he's trying)

Loni

[mr. synellinden]

Interesting to see that a lot of big names hit the rails yesterday. Ivey, Cunningham, Hellmuth, Reese, Elezra, Bloch, Lindgren, Juanda, etc.

Since this is generally considered by pros to be the most prestigious poker tournament in the world, I am very curious to see how this plays out.

Of those left, I think Negreneau and Greenstein are probably the best all around players but Negreneau has almost no chance with his chip position. Greenstein is in okay shape. But I also like Freddy Deeb who made a huge move yesterday.

After the Raymer - Hachem debate a few weeks ago, I like how Jason pointed out the Hachem has not yet posted at this year's WS - just to make sure there were no I told you so's in case Raymer makes a run in this HORSE tourney.

[JasonEvans]

After the Raymer - Hachem debate a few weeks ago, I like how Jason pointed out the Hachem has not yet posted at this year's WS - just to make sure there were no I told you so's in case Raymer makes a run in this HORSE tourney.

Hachem only showed up a couple days ago. He skipped the first few weeks of the Series. I think he decided to spend more time with his family this year and not be in the States for 2 months without a break. Seeing as most of the early Series events are fairly low-dollar events, one can hardly blame him.

Raymer is having a nice year so far at the Series. He has 3 cashes and looks likely to cash in HORSE too.

As an aside, Matusow and Gabe Kaplan are still very much in it for the H.O.R.S.E. title. ESPN would love for either of them to make the final TV table I bet. There are a few other fairly recognizeable names in the running for the HORSE final table including Raymer, Greenstein, and Deeb. ESPN would do flips if Negreanu could double-up a couple times to make a top 5 showing at this event, that's for sure.

--Jason "I wonder if Greenstein would give his prize to charity if he won this event-- first place is worth 2.2 million" Evans

[pacificrounder]

I get a little tired of people bubbling about Phil Ivey. He's a great player, nothing too spectacular though and to say that "it ain't even close" is a little too bubbly for me because there are plenty of other players that are at (or above) his level.

For my money, it's Chip Reese. Reese didn't even play many (if any) WSOP events until poker went Hollywood...imagine how many bracelets he would have had if he had showed up to the amount of tournaments that Chan, Hellmuth, and D. Brunson have. It could be above 15, IMO.

[ivduke]

I get a little tired of people bubbling about Phil Ivey. He's a great player, nothing too spectacular though and to say that "it ain't even close" is a little too bubbly for me because there are plenty of other players that are at (or above) his level.

For my money, it's Chip Reese. Reese didn't even play many (if any) WSOP events until poker went Hollywood...imagine how many bracelets he would have had if he had showed up to the amount of tournaments that Chan, Hellmuth, and D. Brunson have. It could be above 15, IMO.


Chip Reese is one of the greatest cash players in the world. However, he does not enjoy, nor has had had particularly that much sucess as compared to other in tournaments. TV has brought on issues with trying to rank players. Reese certainly is one of the best Hold em players in the world, but will never garner the attention (both positive an negative) that Hellmuth has. I talked to Chip when I was out 2 week ago to the WSOP and he was spending most of his time playing cash at the Bellagio. He thoroughly enjoys the HORSE event, and I think all the professionals recognize this as the true monikor of "World Champion."

Phil Ivey was only going to play the HORSE and MAin Event tournaments until Elzra sucked him into a 6-1 10,000K bet on a professional winning a bracelet (ironically enough Elezra won one). The play is so sporadic at the series that it is tough to pick a professional against an amateur who has no reputation to protect, and gets the story of a lifetime if he gets knocked out by the pro--it's a no lose situation. I lost to Greg Raymer in Foxwoods in a USPC qualifier 2 years ago, and I still talk about it :p

[JasonEvans]

I get a little tired of people bubbling about Phil Ivey. He's a great player, nothing too spectacular though and to say that "it ain't even close" is a little too bubbly for me because there are plenty of other players that are at (or above) his level.

For my money, it's Chip Reese. Reese didn't even play many (if any) WSOP events until poker went Hollywood...imagine how many bracelets he would have had if he had showed up to the amount of tournaments that Chan, Hellmuth, and D. Brunson have. It could be above 15, IMO.

You know, it is hard to say who is really the best. There are so many different aspects to poker including different games and different ways of playing.

Make no mistake, Chip is a truly great player and is likely the best cash game player, but Phil wins most of the player of the year awards every year because he is overall the best player. Like Chip, he doesn't really bother with the tournaments because he makes so much more playing in the "big game." Most of the Series events this year (with buy-ins in the $1500-$2500 range) are "only" paying a few hundred thousand to the winners and significantly less to guys who finish in the top 5 but do not win it all. When you consider that the "big game" is generally a $4000-8000 limit game you can see why it is just not worth it to the top pros to play in Series events. Pots at the "big game" are routinely north of $50k. Why should Phil or Chip or other guys bother with playing 3 days for an outside chance at winning $100-grand when they can play in a game where pots are routinely around that size?

Still, I think the thing that speaks volumes about Phil being #1 is the story of the Texas billionare who came to Vegas to break the top pros. The pros (including Brunson and Chan) were in deep trouble (they had pooled their money and were playing the billionaire heads-up) when the pros begged Phil to play for them (to be their champion). He took the pros from 6 million down to 7 million up in the matter of a couple days and the Texas dude gave up.

As an aside, I've heard it said that poker is really jut for fun for the most famous pros at this point because so many of them have made so much from their ownership stakes in the online gambling sites. There is talk that Negreanu made $40 million+ in one year from his ownership in FullContactPoker. Ferguson, Ivey, Lederer, and a few others have huge stakes in FullTilt and make far more from that than they do from playing poker from what I hear.

-Jason "the prop bets are the most fun part of the Series-- the pros make some crazy bets!!" Evans

[JasonEvans]

The play is so sporadic at the series that it is tough to pick a professional against an amateur who has no reputation to protect, and gets the story of a lifetime if he gets knocked out by the pro--it's a no lose situation. I lost to Greg Raymer in Foxwoods in a USPC qualifier 2 years ago, and I still talk about it :p

I've got a friend who was at Bellagio a few months ago late at night and they announced a $1000 buy-in table where Hachem would be playing. Anyone with $1000 could sit down with Hachem and just play. It was like 2am but there was soon a looong line of people waiting just to sit at the table with him. My friend said guys were doing crazy, insane stuff when they would get into a hand with Hachem because everyone was desperate to say "I beat him on a bluff" or "I got busted by him when I thought I had the nuts!!" Anything for a story!

My friend said Hachem would just fold and fold until he had a legit hand and then he would clean up with all the insane betting when he would be in the hand. My friend said Hachem probably made $30 grand in an hour or so. And yes, my friend sat down and played and lost his stack to Hachem (trip 6s vs. trip Qs).

-Jason "I need to be in Vegas right now!!" Evans

[toughbuff1]

Its time! In about ten minutes, the main event of the World Series of Poker will begin, and right about now everyone entered is envisioning a world championship, a bracelet, and about $10 million in their bank accounts. Who will emerge as the winner? A pro? An internet whiz? Another unknown? Ben Affleck? We'll have to wait and see, but I for one will be glued to the internet reports. Aside from March Madness, this is my favorite time of year, and I can't wait to see who takes the championship. (I have a feeling Mike "the Grinder" Mizrachi will go deep this year, but we'll see).

[mr. synellinden]

Anyone know how many total entries there are for the main even this year. The way it is set up they can accomodate 12,000. There are four Day 1's of 3000 people. I was wondering if they really got that many.

[toughbuff1]

The site I read says they set up 160 tables today, and have ten chairs per table. They are seating nine per table right now, but will seat more as more people register. I'm thinking we'll have a total count in a couple hours, but my guess is it will be around 5-6,000 people this year.

[JasonEvans]

The site I read says they set up 160 tables today, and have ten chairs per table. They are seating nine per table right now, but will seat more as more people register. I'm thinking we'll have a total count in a couple hours, but my guess is it will be around 5-6,000 people this year.

I have not checked but will they allow people to walk-up and buy-in tomorrow and the next 2 days after that of the first round? Seems like that would allow people to buy-in multiple times, which is not how this tournament should work.

Also, I think I read that they flattened out the payout structure this year so first place cannot get more than $10 million. I think that is a good thing. Push the money down a little bit further. I still think everyone at the final table should get a million though.

Need to go to the websites and read about what is going on now!!

-Jason "I WISH I WAS IN VEGAS RIGHT NOW!!!" Evans