Nov
10
by Chad Holloway
PokerNews recently flew me down to Biloxi, Mississippi to cover the WSOP-Circuit Main Event at the IP Casino Resort & Spa. The hotel and casino were impressive and I was happy to cover the event with my PokerNews teammate, Mickey “123md” Doft, the best tournament reporter in the business. Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum was also there taking care of the WSOP website, so I knew I was in for a good time. Even though I was looking forward to being in Mississippi, the real excitement and place I really wanted to be was in Las Vegas for the return of the November Nine.
I followed along on PokerNews and watched the streaming feed on Saturday as Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi positioned himself to win the whole thing by claiming the chip lead. The hand between him and Matthew Jarvis was the sickest hand since the 2005 WSOP when Mike Matusow’s pocket kings ran into the pocket aces of Scott Lazar. There were quite a few sick hands that developed, mainly because everyone was playing so well. I think this year’s final table had the highest quality play in years. Unfortunately Mizrachi couldn’t win the title, ultimately finishing in 5th place. Nonetheless, he has the series of a lifetime and his success will surely go down in poker history.
As for the WSOPC in Biloxi, the tournament itself wasn’t too exciting. T.J. Cloutier was there and cashed in 18th place. The final table was also pretty wild. We went from nine-handed play to heads-up in 90 minutes, but then variance caught up and the final two players played back and forth for five hours. Ultimately the winner was Travis Lutes, who took home $95,253 and locked up a spot in the Circuit National Championship $1 Million Freeroll which will take place at Caesars sometime in May.
During Day 2 of the tournament, action ended early and we were able to watch the live feed of the WSOP Main Event heads-up match between Jonathan Duhamel and John Racener. I personally want Racener to win, but he started with a 6-1 chip disadvantage so we knew his chances weren’t great. Regardless, it was fun watching it with Doft and WhoJedi while enjoying a few drinks. Our cocktail waitress, named Blair and in my opinion the cutest server working at the IP, brought WhoJedi and I a steady flow of drinks. Her southern accent kept us amused as did her outfit, or lack thereof. Pretty soon we were feeling good and decided to play a little roulette. I rarely play anything in the pit, but we both managed to win a little.
Before I forget to say it, congratulations to Jonathan Duhamel on becoming the first Canadian to win the WSOP Main Event. This can only be good for poker and although I’ve never met him, I hear Duhamel is a really nice guy and will be a great ambassador to the game. I’m sure I’ll get the chance to write some things about him over the course of the next few weeks. Speaking of which, I have articles posted daily over at PokerNews.com, so check them out and let me know what you think.
As I write this, I have a day to spend in Biloxi playing poker before I fly out to Los Angeles for the NAPT event at the Bike Casino. I’ve never been to L.A. before and am looking forward to the trip. Unfortunately, I’m not going to have much time to see the sights. I might wake up extra early and pay a visit to Hollywood Boulevard though. I know if I don’t that I’ll regret it later. I’ll be sure to blog from L.A. about any and all exploits, and I guarantee there will be some.
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Tags: wsop, biloxi
Nov
1
by Chad Holloway
This past summer I worked free lance as a poker reporter/blogger for PokerNews at the 2010 World Series of Poker. I must have done a decent job because I was recently offered, and accepted, a position with PokerNews as a senior writer. This means I write articles on a daily basis for PokerNews.com and also travel to various locations and do some reporting assignments. In fact, I leave in a few days for the WSOP-Circuit event in Biloxi, Mississippi followed by a trip to L.A. for the N.A.P.T. event at the Bike Casino. I’ve never been to L.A., so I’m really looking forward to that.
I know I’ve mentioned the 2010 ESPN Fantasy Poker League and I’ve finally written an article about it. The article should appear in the December issue of Poker Pro Magazine, so please check it out. However, I do want to let you know how things turned out. If you recall, this year’s draft featured twelve participants including Daniel Negreanu, Eric Baldwin, Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, Howard Lederer, Lance Bradley, Dennis Phillips, Bernard Lee, Mark Seif, Gavin Smith, Chops from WickedChopsPoker, and myself.
Here are how the teams shaped up with each individual player’s point total in parentheses:
Chops: Phil Ivey (63), Carlos Mortenson (69), David Benyamine (2), Faraz Jaka (59), Brock Parker (61), Abe Moussari (64), Thomas Marchese (53), Josh Arieh (3)
Negreanu: Daniel Negreanu (31), Scotty Nguyen (16), David Chiu (134), Justin Smith (22), Todd Brunson (25), Freddy Deeb/Steve Billirakis (97), Brett Richey (16), John Monnette (16)
Feldman: Jason Mercier (30), Bertrand Grospellier (17), Chau Giang (17), Scott Seiver (45), David Pham (0), Alexander Kostritsyn (96), David Sands (51), Ryan D’Angelo/Vladimir Shchemelev (35)
Wise: Allen Cunningham (2), Daniel Alaei (162), Andy Bloch (19), Eli Elezra (11), Isaac Haxton (21), Tom Schneider (7), Nick Schulman (46), Vitaly Lunkin (16)
Lederer: Barry Greenstein (11), John Juanda (223), Robert Mizrachi (125), Chad Brown (40), Matt Glantz (65), Amnon Filippi (6), Ralph Perry (0), Thor Hansen (0)
Phillips: Erick Lindgren (28), Jeffrey Lisandro (41), JC Tran (16), David Singer (15), Brandon Cantu (11), Greg Mueller (8), John Phan (1), Nam Le (14)
Seif: Tom Dwan (97), Phil Galfond (2), Ted Forrest (8), Doyle Brunson (0), Jennifer Harman (102), Johnny Chan (2), Mark Seif/Greg Raymer (3), Eric Froelich (2)
Bradley: Erik Seidel (85), Howard Lederer (0), Chris Bjorin (6), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (6), Patrik Antonius/David Baker (132), Kenny Tran (0), Andrew Litchenberger (0), Dan Kelly (117)
Lee: Chris Ferguson (12), Michael Binger (11), Paul Wasicka (1), Eric Baldwin (29), Max Pescatori (11), Dwyte Pilgrim (32), Roland De Wolfe (0), Jonathan Little (46)
Baldwin: Scott Clements (25), Matt Hawrilenko (0), Justin Bonomo (17), James Mackey (0), Shannon Shorr (13), Justin Young (10), James Van Alstyne (8), Michael Katz (1)
Smith: Huck Seed (14), Gavin Smith (80), Jeff Madsen (9), Steve Sung (0), Bryan Devonshire (2), David Oppenheim (76), Chris Bell (70), Vivek Rajkumar (19)
Holloway (Team Poker Pro): Phil Hellmuth (56), Sorel Mizzi (36), Mike Matusow (9), Annette Obrestad (13), David Williams (6), Jason Somerville (149), Phil Laak/Michael Mizrachi (91 + Main Event), Amit Makhija (50)
If you do the math, you will discover that I managed to take the whole thing down. Here are the official results:
Final Standings
1st- Chad Holloway: 576*
2nd- Howard Lederer: 470
3rd- Priess Chops: 374
4th- Daniel Negreanu: 357
5th- Lance Bradley: 346
6th- Andrew Feldman: 291
7th- Gary Wise: 284
8th- Gavin Smith: 270
9th- Mark Seif: 216
10th- Bernard Lee: 142
11th- Dennis Phillips: 134
12th- Eric Baldwin: 74
*Includes Main Event points up until November Nine, but will earn more based upon Mizrachi’s finish at the final table.
It was really exciting to win this league. I’ve long prided myself on my Fantasy Poker knowledge and this gave me the reassurance and credibility I needed. I just wish I would have taken some of the other player’s offer to bet at the beginning of the year. I can’t get into specifics, but many of the participants were making bets in the five figures! Oh well, I’ll just have to be content with the sweet taste of victory.
Oct
25
by Julien Lagarde
After his first victory in Barcelona in 2009, Mark got a second title on the WPT circuit at the Festa al Lago tournament.
His double victory is especially impressive due to his young age as he's only 20 years old.
Despite the very tough field in this tournament, with the presence of Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Anette Obrestad, Mark Randal played bravely and became the tournament chipleader on Day 4 giving him a huge advantage at the final table.
Mark eventually won the Festa al Lago Main Event by beating out Michael Benvenuti. The very short heads-up battle only lasted 14 hands before resulting in his win earning him $831,500!
The performance of a real pro, Flowers has now become the youngest player to wins multiple WPT titles! Congratulations!
Oct
20
by Chad Holloway
Matthias Habernig at the LAPT.
How about that WSOP-Europe? The series gets better and better every year, and I think this was the best yet. Congratulations to Phil “The Unabomber” Laak for winning his first WSOP gold bracelet in Event #1: Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em. Laak was, without a doubt, one of the most popular poker characters without a bracelet. While we’re on it, congratulations to Gus Hansen. Gus has dominated the World Poker Tour in the past but has always come up short in the WSOP. That all changed when he took down Event #4: No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up by defeating Jim Collopy in an epic heads-up confrontation. Congrats again to both, they’ve long been staples in the poker world and it is nice to see them capture their first bracelets.
Other highlights of the WSOPE include Jeff Lisandro winning his fifth bracelet by taking down the PLO event (his first non-Seven Card Stud bracelet); Viktor Blom and Phil Ivey’s deep run in the Main Event; and James Bord taking down the title. Now that the WSOPE has wrapped, we’ll all just have to wait until November to see who will become the new World Champion (I’m leaning toward Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi or John Racener).
I just had a new article in Poker Pro Magazine highlighting the benefits of using social media outlets to improve your Fantasy Poker game. If you want to check it out, you can click here. Speaking of which, we’ve been working hard on revamping the Poker Pro Media social media outlets, and we’ve started a big Twitter campaign. Just by following us on Twitter, you can win annual subscriptions to the magazines while also getting breaking news, industry gossip, tournament updates, special offers and chances to win great prizes. I recommend you follow @pokerpromag, @pokerproeurope, @pokerprocanada, and @onlinepokerpro. While you’re at it, feel free to follow myself (@ChadAHolloway) and Phil Laak (@RealPhilLaak).
In more recent news, I just returned from Rosario, Argentina where I was working the LAPT Grand Final for PokerNews. This was my first trip to South America and I was excited to visit the City Center Casino, which was where the event was held and happens to be the continent’s largest casino. By Vegas standards, the casino wasn’t overly impressive, but it was still pretty nice. While many of the top pros were in Europe for the WSOPE, some managed to make the trip. Chris Moneymaker, Dennis Phillips, Jose “Nacho” Barbero and Terrence Chan were just a few of the pros in attendance. The event ended up drawing 254 players and was highlighted by a young Austrian by the name of Matthias Habernig, who had won the previous LAPT event at Florianopolis. Habernig made the final table and everyone was wondering if he could win back-to-back titles (which Nacho Barbero had done earlier in the year). Unfortunately for him, Habernig could only manage a sixth place finish; regardless, his back-to-back final table appearances are an impressive feat. The tournament was eventually won by Martin Sansour, who eliminated everyone at the final except one opponent.
Also, I have some good news in the poker writing front. Since this year’s WSOP, I have been working for PokerNews on a freelance basis. As of a couple weeks ago, I am now a full-time staff writer for the site! I am really excited about the opportunity and the travel experiences that will surely accompany it. Which means some great blog posts in the future!