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.