Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
You can count me among the list of people that has a hard time getting excited about this year’s WSOP Heads-Up Rematches. I mean, I remember in 2003 when Moneymaker went from a no-name accountant to WSOP Champ vividly. The memory of the bluff verses Sammy Farha is permanently etched into my brain, and even now it still surprises me that it worked when I see it replayed. I’ve seen it on ESPN at least a dozen times, which may be a low number considering the number of people that I talk to that say they watch it every time that it’s on . It was a magical event because when it happened nobody realized exactly how special the event would become, and how it would be this great turning point for the poker industry. To me, the rematch has none of the nostalgia attached to it, and that the thought of running em’ twice just doesn’t really get my blood boiling.
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Coolwhipflea, Guest Posts, Paul Ellis, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
by Kevin “Kevmath” Mathers
The World Series of Poker announced last week that they would hold a series of “Main Event Rematches” to be filmed in June on ESPN. The first two matches scheduled have already been announced: Chris Moneymaker v Sammy Farha from the 2003 Main Event and Phil Hellmuth v Johnny Chan in a repeat of their 1989 Main Event. Fan voting on Facebook will decide the final match, and the prevailing opinion is that a repeat of the 1988 Main Event between Chan and Erik Seidel will get the most votes.
Here’s some other WSOP Main Event heads-up duels people may want to see:
2000: Chris “Jesus” Ferguson v TJ Cloutier – Cloutier has 6 WSOP bracelets, but would like to have traded any of those wins for another chance at a Main Event win, having a pair of runner-up finishes in his Poker Hall of Fame career. The 2000 WSOP against Ferguson appears to be Cloutier’s last chance at Main Event glory, as he overcame Ferguson’s dominant chip advantage at the start of heads-up play to almost even in chips. Holding a dominating A-Q against Ferguson’s A-9, if Cloutier’s hand held up he’d hold most of the chips and have his picture appear on the Wall of Champions and eventually have his banner hanging in the Amazon Room. A fateful 9 of hearts on the river gave Jesus the title, a card that may haunt the former football player the rest of his poker career.
1978: Bobby Baldwin v Crandall Addington – A battle of two future Poker Hall of Fame members, the 1978 WSOP Main Event was one of the first poker tournaments to get national television coverage. The audience would see Baldwin, a “young gun” at the age of 28 take on the well-dressed Addington for the first place prize of $210,000. Addington held the chip lead when heads-up play began, but Baldwin pulled a daring bluff with just 10 high against his opponent to turn the tide and eventually become the youngest player to win the Main Event at that time. Both men later enjoyed successful careers in business, but another heads-up match between the two legends would be a welcome sight to those looking for some old-school poker.
2001: Dewey Tomko v Carlos Mortensen – Another player with a pair of runner-up finishes, Tomko held the best hand with one card to come, but the river would betray him both times. Jack Straus would make a high two pair against Tomko in 1982; against Mortensen his pocket aces were cracked on the river when a 9 on the river gave Mortensen a straight. The unflappable Tomko hasn’t given up trying to win a Main Event, playing every Main Event since 1974, and was entered into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2008.
And finally from 1994: Russ Hamilton v Hugh Vincent – I don’t know if Mr. Vincent’s still alive, but anything that could bring Russ back to Las Vegas would be a good idea. I’m sure certain members of the poker community would love to welcome him back with open arms and closed fists.
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, Kevmath, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
This was the “slow” Sunday on Full Tilt, the weekend sandwiched between Double Guarantees week and the kickoff of FTOPS XX on April 17th but how that definition was crushed with a nearly $2,000,000 prizepool in the biggest game of the day along with the $1,000 Onyx Cup Qualifier. So while there wasn’t the kind of action we’ve seen over the last several weeks, there were still plenty of opportunities out there for players to pick up a big prize.
$1,922,400 was the prizepool in the biggest tournament of the day after the guarantee was bumped to $1,500,000 and switched to a Multi-entry format. A significant increase in money from the standard $750,000 which usually accompanies the $200+16 buyin and nearly 10,000 players took advantage off the field. 1,080 entries made the money but it was “Mr Boogerz” (nice name sir) who would take the top prize of $307,584 for the win.
We saw another interesting deal made in the Sunday Brawl to kickoff the day when “lindah3″ finished in 3rd but banked more money then the runner up and eventual winner “Exan13″. The $200,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) had another stellar final table on display with Full Tilt pro Jono Karamalikis, Michael “grindtherail” Lavin, and Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen who would beat Stan “stanman420″ Lee after a long heads up battle. Kevin “Wu_Wizard” MacPhee was the player of note to make the Sunday Mulligan final table but drop out of the tournament in 6th.
The most entertaining final table was in the second Onyx Cup Qualifier, a $1,000 buyin satellite to the high stakes poker tournament in May. At stake was a winner-take-all $100,000 seat in the first Onyx Cup event and 3 of the 4 final players were all world class. “Eldos” from Kazakhstan was facing three players with six WSOP bracelets between them in Daniel “FakeSky” Alaei (3), Josh Arieh (2), and David “Bussa Buss” Baker (1). After a long battle, the anonymous “Eldos” would outlast, outflop the rail favorite David Baker to book a seat in the biggest tournament of his life. Look forward to meeting the mystery man on May 11th.
With the conclusion of Big Money Sunday it is time to turn the grinder attention to FTOPS XX which starts with a nice $3,000,000 in the first event. Satellites for all FTOPS events are running around the clock, pick up a big score on the cheap. Full Tilt also recently announced the schedule for MiniFTOPS XX for our lower bankrolled players. Plenty of chances for our players to inflate their bankroll.
Big Money Sunday results listed below.
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS, MiniFTOPS, Onyx Cup Series
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
by Jason “Spaceman” Kirk
I just got a press release announcing a special made-for-TV event that the WSOP is putting together. The show will consist of three rematches from famous heads-up duels in the WSOP Main Event, played out on June 2nd and air on July 26th on ESPN. Two of the rematches – 2003’s Chris Moneymaker v. Sam Farha and 1989’s Johnny Chan v. Phil Hellmuth – have been chosen by the WSOP, but the third is going to be chosen by the fans. I can understand the rationale behind both of the WSOP’s picks. Moneymaker’s win was the shot heard ‘round the world that ignited the poker boom, while the 1989 match saw Chan denied a third straight world championship and gave rise to the most monumental ego in the history of poker in the form of Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth. Fair enough. However, it seems pretty obvious to me that the WSOP missed out on a fantastic opportunity to give one of its greatest players a chance to shake an unfair mantle foisted upon him by Hollywood.
Erik Seidel’s first-ever WSOP cash was second place in the Main Event, which under normal circumstances would garner him a nice second-place check and the honor of having the details of his performance lost to all but his own memory. Thanks to screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien and their little 1999 movie Rounders, though, he’s known worldwide as the guy who moved all-in against Johnny Chan’s nut straight, even by people who don’t know anything more about poker other than to fold when the Russian guy gives his Oreo tell. Sure, Seidel has acquitted himself pretty well since then, especially so far this year. Sure, he now tops the all-time money list in tournament poker and is highly respected by his peers. But in popular culture, the Rounders moment lingers – and to me, as somebody who appreciates both Seidel’s achievements and the history of the game, that’s seriously not cool.
Luckily, the rematch could still happen. One of the four choices poker fans have before them is the Seidel-Chan. None of the other three – 2004’s Greg Raymer v. David Williams, 2006’s Jamie Gold v Paul Wasicka, and 2010’s Jonathan Duhamel v. John Racener – hold any of the same historical significance as Seidel-Chan. One of them goes a step further by raising the frightening spectre of allowing Jamie Gold to return to television. (Isn’t there a law somewhere banning that? If not, there should be.) The oldest matchup of the four available is by far the best choice, so consider this my request to the poker community at large to do a great poker player justice by voting Seidel-Chan today at WSOP Facebook page.
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Seidel, Guest Posts, Jason "Spaceman" Kirk, Johnny Chan, WSOP
Posted by Dave McCarthy | Filed under Uncategorized
Fans of google’s occasional search pranks (or Rush Poker Mobile) might have noticed that if you google “Tilt” from a smart phone on April 6, the results are literally tilted.
Rush Mobile continues to function regardless of the angle you hold your Android phone at.
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The final weekend of Double Guarantees Week brought another boat load of players to the online tables concluding with a Sunday featuring triple guaranteed prizepools. This ballooned things up to 11 payouts which topped the six figure mark including a 5-handed deal in the Sunday Brawl which saw 5th place paying out more than any of the other four which finished afterwards. Two Full Tilt pros came up just short of a win in one of the majors, a 2008 November Niner made a run in the biggest tournament of the day, and the $600,000 (rebuy) payout roster was a who’s who of the online poker world.
Luckily Full Tilt has given us the next weekend to gather our breath with a regular schedule before FTOPS XX kicks off on April 17th.
The Sunday Brawl kicked things off by blasting over it’s guarantee and came just 56 entries short of a cool $2,000,000 prizepool right out of the gate. It was a solid final table which featured two top players in Yevgeniy “bballer88″ Timoshenko and Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek but it would be “SOLID_FUNDS” who would take the 1st place along with the coveted Best Trash Talker award for his constant ragging on Jarzabek from two tables down. The big winner of the tournament was “Popp1987″ who managed to work a deal where his 5th place finish grabbed him $227,845 of the prizepool, larger than any of those who finished after him. Well played sir.
The always entertaining 16:00 rebuy tournament was bumped up to a $600,000 guarantee and once again did not disappoint. Several players ran multiple entries deep including Jay “THE_GOLDMINE” Kinkade (7th/30th) but it was a heads up battle of pros when Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker out lasted Full Tilt Pro Joao Barbosa for the win. You can look below at the results for the long list of big names players who would go deep in the tournament, I generally list the notable names in the top 100 and this took awhile.
The Sunday Mulligan was the next tournament to play down to a winner and Full Tilt’s David Chiu was the next to just miss the victory. He finished 2nd to Mike “dartz222″ Dietrich at a final table which also featured WSOP champion Scott Clements. The last major of the day also featured a fine collection of the names coming up just short.
The big game of the day was the tripled up $2,250,000 Guarantee which drew of 14,000 entrants and 1st place would end up carding a score over $350,000 on the day. Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek was looking for his second major final table of the day but would come up just short as would Jason “TheMasterJ33″ Dewitt. As players busted and tables combined, the twitter world was all atwitter with the news of 2008 November Niner Chino “TheComeUp” Rheem making a big run at the title.
While most of the remaining players were looking for the biggest payday of their career, Rheem was sporting a rail which included several Mizrachi brothers, Mike Matusow, Stuart Paterson, and an all-star cast of characters cheering him on. Easily the most entertaining tournament to watch but the crowd favorite would have to settle for just a 14th place showing. The wee hours of the morning would see the final 4 players chop up nearly $1,100,000 between them with happymon32 ($353,769) getting the biggest cut.
Those were just a few of the huge fields throughout the day. There was something for all stakes/games with the first $1 WSOP Main Event Qualifier kicking off along with the Double Deuce and FTOPS XX satellites. Enjoy the short pause as more great promotions are right around the corner including the Take 2 bonuses, FTOPS/MiniFTOPS XX, and so many cheap ways to satellite into the 2011 World Series of Poker.
Triple Guarantee Big Money Sunday results below.
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, David Chiu, Joao Barbosa, Scott Clements, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It’s been a few months since Full Tilt introduced the latest tournament system tweak, the much talked about Multi-entry format. There are players out there who absolutely love throwing their buyins at this new type of tournament. There are just as many who weep, wring their hands, and bemoan the oncoming death of online bankrolls. My general response is play them if you like, don’t play them if they are not your style (or exceed the delicate boundaries of proper bankroll management). It’s not rocket science.
Love them or hate them, they are a lot of fun to witness.
Since they were introduced, we hadn’t seen the mythical “merged stacks” as defined in the rules of the game. The system is set up so that players are never seated with any other their other entries. If a player has more entries than tables remaining then two stacks are merged together with the eliminated entry being paid at that finished position. A novel idea and one that (to my knowledge) had never been enforced. That was until early Tuesday morning in the $1k Monday $2,000,000 Guarantee Multi-entry tournament.
Thanks to random overly dedicated railbirds, it looks like Huck Seed did it for $7,000 finishing 7th and 9th way back in January 2011.
Adam “TheSquee” Sherman and Bjorn “kleath” Kleathersson came close to this accomplishment, both in the $400,000 Guarantee (rebuy) back in January but it was Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers who finally pulled it off. The first idea that we could see something unique appeared with just 72 of the starting 2,404 remaining and Sowers had two entries remaining with them sitting 1st and 2nd in chips.
The chip counts were still deep with the average stack sporting an effective M in the 18-20 range and it would still take another 4.5 hours to play it out. The play slowed dramatically when the field hit the final two tables with Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania exiting in 12th and the unique merged stacks finally occurred when “SqueezePlease” turned in his bid as the final table bubble boy.
There was finally a situation were a player had more entries than tables remaining. The tournament was paused slightly as both of Sowers stacks were combined, with his removed entry grabbing the 9th paid position for cool $28,848 and still playing for the big prize. The other seven players still presented him with a huge hurdle that included Mickey “Mement_mori” Petersen, Chris “MoormanI” Moorman, Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen, Michael “YrrsiNN” Huber, and Ben “Bttech86″ Tolleren.
While the interesting historical story was written with the first ever merged stacks, Sowers didn’t stop there and went on to cap off an evening by adding another $490,000 with a first place finish. He defeated a tough field, much larger than normal due to Double Guarantees Week, to book over $500,000 for 11 hours work. A nice up-tick in his yearly ROI statistics and putting his career online tournament winning near $3,000,000.
It’s good work if you can get it.
1st – Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers – $490,296
2nd – Kagm7F7 – $317,328
3rd – Chris “MoormanI” Moorman – $235,592
4th – Kadabra – $177,896
5th – Michael “YrrsiNN” Huber – $125,008
6th – Ben “Bttech86″ Tollerene – $81,736
7th – Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen – $55,292
8th – Mickey “Mement_mori” Petersen – $38,464
9th – Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers – $28,848
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Double Guarantees Week, Mike "SowersUNCC" Sowers, Multi-entry
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
While the latest Double Guarantees Week wasn’t scheduled to kick off until midnight eastern, Full Tilt decided to double up on the regular $750,000 with a Multi-entry $200+16 with a $1,500,000 Guarantee which grew to $2,267,800 before registration was closed. Yesterday was also the first of three Onyx Cup Qualifiers giving players a chance to win a $105,000 package for $640 which was sporting a significant overlay.
Calvin “Cal4688″ Anderson was the big money winner on the day after a heads up chop in the $1,500,000 put over $300,000 in his bankroll. It was battle at a final table that featured 2010 November Nine runner up John Racener, Bryan “Boston3Party” Leskowitz, and Barry “bearw8″ Wiedemann. Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen, Joe “bigegypt” Elpayaa, and Lauren “locoenlacabeza” Kling were also in the running for the top prize but all fell just short of the final table.
Leskowitz also produced a nice result in the shark filled waters of the $200,000 (Rebuy) tournament. That was just another stacked final table with Joe “hoodini10″ Udine, Andrew “Browndog19″ Brown, and another 2010 November Niner in Soi Nguyen continuing his solid beginning to the year. The Sunday Brawl trumped them all as far as talent to entertain the rail with Mickey “Mement_mori” Petersen, Brent “Bhanks11″ Hanks, Cyriel “supa4real” Dohmen, and David “gaucho2121″ Paredes all looking up as TJ “DarkHorse19″ Ulmer took the top prize.
Also having an excellent Sunday were Matt “All In At 420″ Stout, David “Doc Sands” Sands, and Stan “stanman420″ Lee. Full Tilt’s David Chiu came up just one spot short of winning the Sunday Mulligan as Ed “foxypham” Pham took it down.
2010 BLUFF Player of the Year Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi hit perhaps the single biggest prize becoming the first player to book a seat at the inaugural Onyx Cup Series Event. He outlasted 123 other players in a winner-take-all battle that included some of the biggest players in the game. Satellites continue to run for the Qualifiers as well as near non-stop freeroll SnGs for the final Onyx Cup freeroll on May 1st. All Onyx Cup Series Qualifier information can be found here.
Big Money Sunday results below.
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, Double Guarantees Week, Imper1um, Sorel Mizzi
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It doesn’t take much to remind us that our game of poker is just a tiny niche in the big world. On March 11th we received another wake up call when an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami struck the east coast of Japan. While it will take years to determine the long term effects on the country, many forms of fund raising began almost immediately. Full Tilt Poker joined the effort shortly after the disaster and has been running many “Aid For Japan” tournaments throughout the week.
Tom Dwan is throwing his weight behind the efforts by hosting a $10+$10 Multi-entry tournament this Sunday along with a Pro Chat starting at 16:00ET which could potentionally raise $200,000 in one shot. $10 from every entry will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross and each dollar will be matched by Full Tilt.
In addition to the tournament, Dwan will be playing the final heads-up matches in the Challenge durrrr promotion and Full Tilt is donating $10,000 for each of his victories.
All tournament information can be found on the “Aid For Japan” page as well as other ways to donate.
Tags: Aid For Japan, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, Tom Dwan
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
by Paul “Coolwhipflea” Ellis
It all started with a home game.
I was a “Moneymaker Boom” guy. Watching that Tennessee accountant go from a $50 satellite to World Series of Poker Champion turned me onto poker. I didn’t go professional or anything. I mean, I hardly knew what the internet was at the time. But it sparked interest among some of my friends and we created a weekly home game at my place. While poker was the game of choice as we gathered around my dining room table, the purpose of the game was not monetarily related. We’d all tossed in some cash and the winner would walk away richer than he started the night, but it was about the fellowship, the camaraderie, and the overall fun of playing the game.
One of our home game crew was really into social media and urged us all to get onto something new called “Twitter.” After a few months of just making fun of him, I gave it a whirl and immediately developed a friend base among the twitter community. It was interesting to see and watch the evolution of friendships with people that you’d never met before, unfolding at a rate of 140 characters at a time. We weren’t using it to promote anything, or gain more followers. It was just for fun.
Most of my friends on twitter were poker players, and as a result the talk of getting together for a regular game eventually came up in conversation. With that idea, the Twitter Poker Tour idea was formed. Geoff Manning (@cprpoker) and Trevor Holowinski (@pokerplasm) created the first of the Twitter Poker Tour events in October of 2008, with the intent of having an online home game. The buy in was a meager $5 and the games were on Thursday nights. What started as a single table sit and go through a couple of friends on twitter, grew steadily as the weeks wore on. For fun, the Twitter Poker Tour created a website that hosted a monthly leaderboard based on who finished where in the weekly events. It kept the games competitive, and didn’t lose the home game feel.
I found the TPT in November of 2008, and it immediately drew me in. Just like my Friday night gang, I knew everyone at the tables, and it became something that I looked forward to each week. A year later, our little group had about 45-60 regulars on Thursday Nights, and Geoff and I had the idea of hosting a charity event. We selected a charity that was near to my heart, and hosted the “Bad Beat on Cancer” Charity tournament on Full Tilt Poker. My wife is a cancer survivor, having received a bone-marrow transplant and now living cancer free. The BBOC tournament was our way of being able to give back a little monetarily to the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
The BBOC event also launched a new idea for us as we decided to host a radio show while the game was in progress. On Thursday nights, we launch “The TPT Live Show” and for the first BBOC event, we were joined by guests Jan Bresch, the Executive Vice President and COO of The Prevent Cancer Foundation, as we chatted about the BBOC and how it all got started with Phil Gordon and Rafe Furst, and how their idea turned to millions of dollars raised for cancer prevention research. We were then joined by Team Full Tilt Pro Andy Bloch and ESPN’s Andrew Feldman. The $5 tournament raised a few thousand dollars for the cause, and made us proud about what we were doing.
The TPT Live show concept stuck, and it grew from there. We’ve since been joined by guests such as Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, fellow 2010 November Niners Matt Jarvis and John Dolan, 2008 WSOP November Niner Kelly Kim, 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event Final Tablist Lee Childs, DeucesCracked co-founder Jay Rosenkrantz, WSOP Academy Instructor and former FBI Agent Joe Navarro, and so many more guests. It was beginning to feel like a real show whenever we went on air. The follower base continued to increase, and as the levels of participation grew, we were able to up the prizes that we gave away.
In May and June last year, we qualified a player for the World Series of Poker through a series of satellites on Full Tilt. Later in the year, one of our players was able to participate in the Main Event of the North American Poker Tour in Los Angeles. And this year, we hope to give more chances to our group to win something big as the TPT introduces the Twitter Poker Tour Championship Series.
The TPTCS will begin on Sunday April 3rd, and host 26 events over a 2 month stretch, wrapping up just before the 2011 WSOP begins. We have again teamed with Full Tilt Poker to host our events, and will be offering some fantastic cash prizes on top of the prize pools. The buy-in’s range from $2 to $50, with the winner of each event receiving entry into a freeroll TPTCS Tournament of Champions, where we are giving away a tournament seats on Full Tilt Poker between $26 and $216.
I’d never really imagined that a fun little $5 home game on Full Tilt Poker could lead to the opportunities that the TPT has created. It’ll be fun to watch the TPT grow as more and more people continue to find us, and join in on the fun. And who knows, maybe the next WSOP Champion will come from the TPTCS?
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Coolwhipflea, Guest Posts, Paul Ellis, Twitter Poker Tour
Most Popular Posts
- Mike "SowersUNCC" Sowers and The Multi-entry Merged Stacks
- Kevin "Kevmath" Mathers: Thoughts on the Onyx Cup Series
- World Series of Poker Heads Up Rematches
- Twitter Poker Tour - The Beginning
- Big Money Sunday - March 27th
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