WSOP – It’s almost over Roundup Day 7

• Author: Ed
• Filed under: Tournaments
• Date: Jul 19,2008

It’s all eerily quiet in Las Vegas as the World Series of poker 2008 almost draws to a close.  Today saw the final day being played until the grand finale which will be played in November.  From 6,844 down to 27 we are finally ready to find out who will be playing for the $9 million dollars.

We’ve seen all our celebrities die out.  We’ve seen many brave warriors fight until the last breath, but succumb to younger, older, better and worse players.  The truth is it’s done.  It’s almost decided and for those that didn’t make the cut – you have still been a part of poker history just like every other WSOP tournament entrant – you’ve played your role and you should be proud.  You can tell your friends I’ve been there, and maybe if you’re lucky you even have a bracelet.  For many you are already in the annals of poker fame and for us we tip our hats and congratulate you all for a very brave and fearless battle.

But meanwhile, the fight continues.  Today is day 7 and there is one last showdown. 27 will enter, and 9 will survive.  So what happened and who survived?  This year there remains maybe one poker celebrity still in the fold.  The majority of players are relatively unknown although highly successful.  They are both old and young, and come from all walks of life.  This year the table will see many American faces, as five Americans managed to survive.  Everyone that managed to survive today’s competition will continue on to the main event in approximately 117 days on the 9th November 2008.

Dennis Phillips 26,295,000
Ivan Demidov 24,400,000
Scott Montgomery 19,690,000
Peter Eastgate 18,375,000
Ylon Schwartz 12,525,000
Darus Suharto 12,520,000
David Rheem 10,230,000
Craig Marquis 10,210,000
Kelly Kim 2,620,000

Congratulations.  You’ve earned a three-month vacation.  I think you definitely need it!

WSOP Day 5 & 6

• Author: Ed
• Filed under: Tournaments
• Date: Jul 17,2008

Following on from Day four, day five sees 189 players enter the game ready to see who will be the next WSOP poker champion.  Popular players remaining in the contest include Allen Cunningham and Phil Hellmuth to name a few. 

Players started today with a rough average of 760,000 chips and today saw Phil Hellmuth survive ready for day six.  At the end of the day only 79 players managed to survive, and all will claim prize money. 

Today’s top players include

Mark Ketteringham 5,800,000 chips
Jeremy Joseph – 3,100,000 chips
Nikolay Losev 4,058,000
everyone who entered the contest today was guaranteed a minimum of $38,600 dollars in prize money.  The loser fund is significantly rising, so no one will go away empty handed.  Tomorrow this figure will rise to approximately $77,200.
Today saw three female players eliminated, and it looks like two will survive on over until day six.  Tiffany Michelle and Lisa Parsons are carrying on into day six.  We wish them the best of luck and hope to see them at the final table.

WSOP Day 6

Today’s entrants are down to 79 and this is the last day until the main event.  Undoubtedly day 6 is to be the fiercest yet, and today will see a large number of players drop out and go home with at least some amount of winnings.

ESPN as usual are selecting ‘feature’ tables, and today every table is being filmed for the chance to air it on television later.  If you’re playing today -chances are you’ve already been featured on TV. If not – you may very well be today. 

Today finally saw Phil Hellmuth eliminated, and we are very pleased.  You can maybe tell we aren’t a big fan, but he finished in 45th place which is a great achievement, and it does prove us wrong.  He is a good poker player.  Last year however, he took 27th place so maybe this is a decline for the poker-pro?

Surviving players today are 27, and today saw both Mark Ketteringham and Jeremy Joseph eliminated.  Today’s leader is now Dennis Phillips and now has a staggering 11,910,000 chips.  Second place falls to Craig Marquis with 11,460,000 chips.  Of our female players from yesterday, Lisa Parsons was eliminated in 79th place, and Tiffany Michelle currently survives with over 9,755,000 chips. 

WSOP Day 3 & 4

• Author: Ed
• Filed under: Tournaments
• Date: Jul 15,2008

Day 3

The WSOP continues to be fiercely fought and it is still unclear what will happen, but one thing is for sure.  Many players will succumb to the contest and drop out.  Now we are into Day 3 everything just gets fiercer and fiercer, and it seems like the numbers are dropping considerably.

This is day 42 of 47 days total and today sees 1308 players enter the fold.  Remarkably, of those 1308 players, a great many were from different countries.  This is a major increase over last year – and it can prove only one thing: the popularity of online poker.

666 is the number of people who will take home prize money.  This means 642 players will not take any winnings home today and leave empty handed until next year.

But how did they perform?  Of them all Chris Moneymaker lost his form and was seen exiting after just 6 minutes of play.  For the former champion, this must be a real disappointment but for many others I’m sure it is a relief.

Today was a fierce brawl for many poker players, and the remaining field is only 474.  This is down from 6844 entrants and just goes to show how fierce this tournament is.

Day 4.

Today sees the 474 players from yesterday compete for the grand prize.  Starting nice and late to give our fierce warriors a rest after yesterday’s very gruelling and tiring day, today seems set to be a little bit easier in terms of number of players, but far more intense because we are now getting down to the final few.  Prize money is in and anyone that goes home at this stage will be leaving with at least $21,000 dollars.  Which is not bad for a $10,000 buy-in?

However, we know one lucky person will collect over $9 million in prize money.  The question is: who will it be?

Today’s most popular players are the infamous Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan.  After maybe two hours into the game, the former champion succumbed to a bad beat.  This will be his fifth "cash-in" at the main event, and his first finish in which he didn’t reach the final table. 

40% of the field survived, and 189 players will continue to tomorrow.

Today’s leader is Jeremy Joseph – 23 years old and currently holding over 2.1 million chips
Second and third place are held by Nikolay Losev and Cristian Draogmir respectively.

WSOP Round-up Day 2

• Author: Ed
• Filed under: Tournaments
• Date: Jul 13,2008

Just like Day 1 has been split into various ’sub-days’ to help make it easier for all of the 6844 entrants of this grandiose competition, so has day 2.  Today we’re going to cover the whole two days in "one".  Because, with this year being the largest in history, there is a lot to tell!

The total number of players in Day2A was a staggering 1251.  Of that number after approximately 10 hours of play – we had 465 very battered, bruised but victorious individuals.  Today saw witness to a large number of professional players taking the fall and amongst those included Scotty Nguyen, Barry Greenstein and Bill Edler. 

Top 5 players for today were:

Brian Schaedlich with a staggering 8011,000  chips
Hunter Frey followed in second amassing 397,000 chips
Jeremiah Smith trails with 386,000

All in all 465 have survived to earn their day off and return after tomorrow.

Day 2B saw 2,378 players come into the fray yet again, and only 842 will manage to survive to see Day 3.  Today also saw the previous winner – Mr.Jerry Yang fall out of the contest, as well as many bracelet holders.  Top 3 players for today were:

Peter Biebel 531,000
Alex Outhred 486,800
Baja Kattamuri 411,100

As you can see no one took a significant lead compared to Day 2A.  This just goes to show how fierce the fight is, and how the 2008 WSOP will be the most competitive yet.

Stay tuned and enjoy!

WSOP Main Event – Day 1D Round up

• Author: Ed
• Filed under: General, Tournaments
• Date: Jul 8,2008

This is the grand final for Day 1.  The Day 1D is the last chance people get to join the tournament, and as a result stands to be the busiest day in the tournament.  Today saw aggressive play from many well-known players as well as many ‘amateurs’ or should I say soon to be Pros.

Today’s grand total of entrants was a staggering 2,461.  This is more players than Day 1A and Day 1B combined – and it just goes to show how popular this tournament is, and how many people were ‘waiting’ to judge the field before they stepped in with their $10,000 buy-in.  Now we know today’s figure we can tell you how many people are going to be in the main competition.

Are you ready? 6844.  This gives a staggering total of over $64 million dollars in the prize pool and it looks set to be a very fierce competition this year, as only the top 666 players will win any money.  The good news is however, we have a lot of poker to play and hands to deal before we get anywhere near the good stuff.

So With Day 1D being the largest, was it the fiercest also? It looks set to be, with many professional players coming into the fold today.  With Phil Hellmuth making his ‘grand’ entrance today as well as Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey and Johnny Chan.

Today’s competition ended at nearly 1AM and the top six were

Steve Austin 149,000
David Oppenheim 123,000
Victor Ramdim 121,000
Carlos Mortenson 109,000
Gus Hanson 105,000

Surprisingly Phil Hellmuth’s wondrous entrance did not seem to help much, as he managed to finish the day with a mediocre 75,800 chips.  Enough to qualify, but certainly not enough to lead.  Surprisingly, last year’s champion Mr. Jerry Yang – managed to scrape by with a very mediocre 26,600 chips. 

This really was an aggressive and a well played day by everyone.

Congratulations, and enjoy your well-deserved one day vacation!