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• WSOP Europe Main Event Day 2A

111 Players began Day 2A on Wednesday in London at the WSOPE Main Event. 40 Survived to play Day 3 on Friday. 

Some of the Names on the Chip Leader Board

• Gus Hanson $350,000
• Annie Duke $191,000
• Erick Lindgren $108,000
• Hoyt Corkins $60,000
• Marco Traniello $45,000
• Jennifer Harman $42,000
• Jeffrey Lisandro $30,000
• Phil Hellmuth $10,000

Day 2A Eliminations

• Deborah Jones
• Erik Seidel
• Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson
• Barry Greenstein
• Beth Shak
• Paul Wasicka

Click =====> here to get current chip counts for the WSOPE Main Event from PokerNews.

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Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael wishes he could have made the trip to London and taken some of his ‘Dead Money’ to contribute to the ‘Cashers’.

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• WSOP Europe end of Day 1B Update

Day 1B has ended in London and here is how things look at the WSOPE Main Event. Close to 130 Players are still alive after Day 1B and advance to Day 2B on Thursday. Some recognizable names are in among the chip leaders:

• Kenny Tran
• Daniel Negreanu
• Jamie Gold
• Johnny Chan
• Lee Nelson
• Tony G
• Juha Helppi
• Joe Beevers
• Erik Friberg
• Howard Lederer

Early Bust Outs from Day 1B

• Doyle Brunson
• Joe Seebok
• Vanessa Rousso
• Phil Gordon
• Mark Vos
• Chad Brown
• Scott Fischman
• Max Pescatori
• Andy Black
• Jeff Madsen
• Scotty Nguyen

Click =====> here to get current chip counts for the WSOPE Main Event from PokerNews.

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• WSOPE Main Event 

Right around 120 players survived Day 1A. Day 1B is underway. Among the Chip leaders at the end of Day 1A include:

• Phil Hellmuth
• Andrew Feldman
• Humberto Brenes
• Jennifer Harman
• Erik Seidel
• Annie Duke
• Erick Lindgren
• Greg Raymer

Early Bust outs from Day 1A include:

• Thomas Bihl
• John Juanda
• Freddy Deeb
• Todd Brunson
• David Williams
• Liz Lieu
• Ted Forrest

Click =====> here to get current chip counts for the WSOPE Main Event from PokerNews.

WSOPE has announced that an additional day 2 has been added to the Main Event schedule. Day 2a will be played on Wednesday September 12, 2007 and Day 2b on Thursday September 13, 2007.

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• WSOPE Main Event Kicks off with Day 1A

WSOPE Main Event is a six day tournament with £ 10,000 buy-in (approx $20,000 US). The Main Event starts with day 1A and will continue Tuesday with day 1B. Day 2 is Wednesday, Day 3 is Thursday, Day 4 is Friday, Day 5 is Saturday and Day 6 with the Final Table on Sunday. All the Days of Poker start at 2:00pm London Time.

The 2nd event of the WSOP Europe has been completed. The £ 5,000 (approx $10,000 US) Pot Limit Omaha Tournament was completed and the Bracelet winner is Dario Alioto who took home £234,390 in prize money (approx $468,000 US). Dario was heads up with Istvan Novak for the Championship. The final hand ended up with Istvan pushing All-In pre-flop.

Dario showed
Istvan had
The flop brought the turn was the and Dario had 2 pair and Istvan was drawing dead. The river brought aand the the Pot Limit Omaha Event was over.

The Final Table Payouts provided by PokerNews

Here are today’s final table money winners:

1 Dario Alioto £234,390 (approx $468,000 US)
2 Istvan Novak £137,280 (approx $274,000 US)
3 Tony G £94,380 (approx $188,000 US)
4 David Callaghan £65,520 (approx $131,000 US)
5 Antoine Arnault £49,530 (approx $99,000 US)
6 Sherkhan Farnood £38,220 (approx $76,000 US)
7 Sampo Lopponen £30,420 (approx $61,000 US)
8 Andy Bloch £22,020 (approx $44,000 US)
9 MH Razaghi £16,380 (approx $32,000 US)

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• Thomas Bihl defeats Jennifer Harman to become the 2007 WSOPE H.O.R.S.E. Bracelet Winner

Thomas Bihl outlasted Jennifer Harman in a Marathon Final Table. Thomas won the Championship on the 353rd hand of the Final Table and the 128th hand of Heads up play with Jennifer. Photos Source: PokerNews 

The Bracelet was won when Thomas had Jennifer outchipped approximately 9-1 and while the Tournament was in the 17th Round. Small Blind $10,000 and the Big Blind $20,000 for Hold ‘Em, Razz and Omaha. Stud Ante and Bring In is $5,000. They had just changed the game from Stud 8 to Hold ‘Em.

After a flop of  and a turn that brought the  Jennifer pushed All-In for her remaining 67,000 and Thomas called for 27,000. Jennifer displayed 2 pair 10’s and 7’s while Thomas had a straight and flush draw. The river filled Thomas’s straight with a 6 and eliminated Jennifer from the H.O.R.S.E. Championship.

The Final Table was a Roller Coaster ride for Jennifer. She started the day with the Chip Lead but fell to Short Stack by the Dinner Break. She survived All-Ins a few times and came all the way back to have the Chip Lead as Heads Up began with Thomas. By the 295th Hand Jennifer’s had a 500,000 lead in chips 780,000 to 270,000.  Thomas started his comeback and by the 350th Hand led 920,000 to 130,000 and the Championship was determined just 3 Hands later.

Here are the Payouts for Final Table challengers as provided by:

Final Table Money Winners:
1 Thomas Bihl £ 70,875 US 141,000 approx
2 Jennifer Harman £ 40,688 US 81,000 approx
3 Kirk Morrison £ 26,250 US 52,000 approx
4 Chris “Jesus” Ferguson £ 21,700 US 43,000 approx
5 Alex Kravchenko £ 17,850 US 35,000 approx
6 Yuval Bronshtein £ 14,438
7 Joe Beevers £ 11,812
8 Gary Jones £ 9,188

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• WSOP Europe H.O.R.S.E. Final Table Set

Jennifer Harman is the Chip Leader heading into the Final Day of the WSOPE H.O.R.S.E. Tournament.

PokerNews provided the following for the WSOP Europe H.O.R.S.E. tournament in London.

• Final Table seats and chip counts

The final table configuration is as follows:

Seat 1: Jennifer Harman - 204,000
Seat 2: Gary Jones - 30,000
Seat 3: Joe Beevers - 74,500
Seat 4: Kirk Morrison - 172,500
Seat 5: Thomas Bihl - 130,500
Seat 6: Yuval Bronshtein - 185,500
Seat 7: Alex Kravchenko - 114,500
Seat 8: Chris Ferguson - 142,500

• Last Eliminations of Day 2
  • Jan Sorensen in 9th Place 
  • Eric Dalby in 10th Place
  • Mark Vos in 11th Place
  • Barny Boatman in 12th Place
  • Tom Nightingale in 13th Place
  • John Juanda in 14th Place
  • Marc Goodwin in 15th Place
  • Jimmy ‘Gobboboy’ Fricke in 16th Place
  • Stephen Ladowski in 17th Place
  • David Levi in 18th Place
  • Michail Tsamis in 19th Place
  • Nickolaus Jedlicka in 20th Place
  • Rafi Amit in 21st Place

Get current ====> Chip Counts as provided by PokerNews.

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• WSOP Europe H.O.R.S.E. Day 2 Updates

Updates are provided by PokerNews and here is where things stand as the tournament progresses to filling the Final table. Here is the Payout and Entries information. Just double the amounts for approximate US dollar amounts. 

Buy In: £ 2,500  Total Prizepool: £ 262,500 Entries: 105

You can see the current Chip Leaders here.

• Recognizable Eliminations on Day 2
• Jeff Madsen 22nd place
• Max Pescatori 24th place
• David Williams 29th place
• Scott Fischman 31st place
• Annie Duke 43rd place
• Allen Cunningham 44th place
• Lee Watkinson 45th place
• Jeffrey Lisandro 46th place
• Erik Seidel 49th place
• Eli Elezra 50th place
• Mel Judah 51st place
• Gus Hansen 53rd place

• Eliminations Day 1
• John Chan 
• Phil Gordon 
• Robert Mizrachi 
• Kenny Tran 
• Ted Forrest 
• Todd Brunson 
• Robert Williamson III 
• Michael Binger 
• Andy Bloch 
• Doyle Brunson 
• Phil Hellmuth 
• Humberto Brenes 
• Dan Shak 102nd place 
• Michael Mizrachi 
• Andy Black 
• Marcel Luske 

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Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael and how he looked when he hit that Straight Flush earlier this year. It was unbelievable and I kept my Poker Face throughout. Of course I was playing online so it wasn’t too difficult to maintain. Too bad I wasn’t at a ‘Bad Beat’ Jackpot table.

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• WSOP Europe has Started

WSOP Europe has begun with the 1st of the 3 events well underway. For the next fortnight, to borrow from Wimbledon, the Poker world will be focused on Europe. In this previous post I talked about the players that have registered.

The schedule looks like this:

• Event 56: September 6, 2007; 3 day £2,500 ($5,000) HORSE tournament.
• Event 57: September 8, 2007; 3 day £5,000 ($10,000) Pot-Limit Omaha tournament.
• Event 58: September 13, 2007; 6 day £10,000 ($20,000) WSOP Europe Main Event, No-Limit Texas Holdem Championship.

Day 1 of the H.O.R.S.E. tournament chip counts as provided by

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• Beware the Garbage Ace - PokerPro Magazine

This story gives excellent views on the ‘Perils of Ace Rag’. Sam O’Connor wrote the story and goes through different scenarios on playing Hold ‘Em with an Ace and another hold card that he describes as garbarge. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger plays with a friend that plays every hand when either of his Hold cards is an Ace. Everybody that plays with him knows their big pocket pair is no good as soon as an Ace hits the board, but conversely if they have a Big Ace they know they will probably get a lot of his chips.

Sam talks about:

• What if we Play the Garbage Ace?
• When the hand is checked around
• Position Play
• Should we ever Play the Garbage Ace

Here is the link for the complete story:

you might see yourself in some of the cases he describes. I know I did.

Sam had a quote in the story that is very true:

The Ace-Junk Hand Is Intended Mostly for the Inexperienced Player So He can Lose His Stack to Us

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• Negreanu Recommends Changes for WSOP Main Event

Daniel Negreanu authored an article in Card Player Magazine and he made some recommendations for changes to the WSOP Main Event. He hopes to help to keep the Main Event as the Worlds most Prestigious Poker Event. He expresses two major concerns: 1. legislators point to the Main Event as proof that Poker is not a game of skill   2. will the Main Event hold people’s interest when each year complete unknowns win the title. Daniel makes good points in the story and makes three recommendations:

1. Raise the Buy-In

Daniel doesn’t like this suggestion but notes that the $10,000 buy-in for the Main Event makes it tied for the 4th largest buy-in for a WSOP event when you add in re-buy events. He also has a blurb about the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.

Also, $10,000 in 1970 represented a huge buy-in event, but by today’s standards, it’s just another tournament. In fact, the World Poker Tour boasts two well-attended events at Bellagio with bigger buy-ins than that (the $25,000 WPT Championship and the $15,000 buy-in December event). In fact, in both Europe and Australia, there are events with bigger buy-ins than $10,000 source

2. Slow it Down

Daniel talks about this years change to double the chips for the Main Event but also double the blinds and how that didn’t change the amount of play you get. He provides a structure he would like to see used to allow more Poker to be played.

I think the best way to crown the “world champion” is to add more play, especially in the early levels. In fact, the typical WPT event has more play than the WSOP main event. source

3. Change the Format 

Two ways to change the format were discussed by Daniel. 1. Separate heats, i.e. 60 tournaments each with 100 players and if you make it to the final 10 of a tournament you cash. The winner of the heat makes the Main Event Final Table. 2. Make the Main Event a Total Shootout. Daniel felt a major problem with Major Tournament Poker is:

is that they often reward those who “hide” or “squeak into the money” by avoiding confrontation. With a shootout, that becomes impossible, because in order to win, you have to do well in shorthanded situations. source

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger isn’t sure about Daniel’s Change the Format idea but the other two ideas would be great. Take a look at the story and see what you think.

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• Moneymaker, Raymer and Hachem - How they became Champions

PokerStars spokespersons Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem got together and made brief videos discussing how they became WSOP Main Event Champions. The videos are provided by PokerTube. No big secrets are given away during the videos but they are interesting. Over the years you probably have heard that Moneymaker won his seat to the WSOP Main Event through an online satellite, but did you know that he was disappointed when he found out that he won a seat instead of the $10,000 in cash? Raymer lets the viewer know that he briefly thought he was beaten on the hand that won the Main Event for him. Hachem discusses flopping a straight and trapping Dannenmann to win the title.

Chris Moneymaker

Greg Raymer

Joe Hachem

• Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael will be studying these videos with an eye towards figuring out how to win the WSOP Main Event next year or at least a Sit and Go.

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• Review of Caesars Poker Room

I found this review of the Caesars Poker Room over at Up For Poker. Blogger Otis goes into a lot of detail with his review. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger has lost some of his money in Caesars Poker Room.

Otis breaks down the review into:

• The Good

Otis likes the structure of the mid-day tournaments as you get to play lots of poker. The dealing staff is very competent and the payouts very good.

It was not a push and hope fest after the first level. In fact, it took us more than six hours to reach the final table and the winner was not declared until two hours later. Frankly, I’m not sure if I’ve found more play for such an inexpensive buy-in in any daily tournament. source

• The Bad

Discusses the inability to broker deals effectively. Harrah’s eliminated paying out a different amount than the percentages listed in the payout schedule.

Harrah’s ended up cutting a deal that requires them to pay out exactly the percentages listed on their payout schedules. If you ask a poker room manager at Caesars about this, he will tell you that the Nevada Gaming Commission requires Caesars to follow these rules and at no point will Caesars pay out an amount different than listed on the payout schedule. source

Seems like this came from all the deals at the WSOP that caused IRS to get involved. Otis goes on to explain that yes you can still broker a deal, but somebody has to sign for the actual top amount listed by Caesars and it impacts the ability to get all involved to agree to the chop.

• The Ugly

According to Otis the Juice Caesars collects is too much in fees. He provides details and ends the section with this quote:

I believe in the staff and dealers getting their tokes, but when the juice on a $120 is that big, convincing folks to tip any more is going to be hard.

I no like-a da juice. source

Up For Poker is an enjoyable blog to read and this was an excellent review of Caesars Poker Room.

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• Card Player Magazine - Todd Brunson and UIGEA

Todd Brunson joins a long list of Poker Players that bash the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in this story in Card Player Magazine. Like many others Todd recommends getting U.S. regulation to online Poker and of course then letting the United States benefit by taxing the online Poker industry. He makes many of the same points that have already been made by others but says it a little more forceful. He indicates the elected officials that forced the UIGEA through with the the Port Security bill are ’small minded’.  

When these small-minded congressmen couldn’t get the bill through by itself, the proper, legal way, they attached it to a popular defense bill to increase port security. What does Internet gaming have to do with port security? What a cheap, slimy move!  source

In an earlier post I asked you to go to Poker Players Alliance (PPA) site and register to join the PPA and fight against UIGEA and while at the PPA site: Use the site to send letters to your elected Congressmen to support HR 2046 the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act and HR 2610 the Skill Game Protection Act. It is not too late to assist the PPA to get UIGEA modified to allow Online Poker. Please do it today.

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