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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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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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• 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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• The Stages of a Poker Player - Ray Zee

Two Plus Two Internet Magazine reprinted this story from author Ray Zee in the August issue. Ray originally authored the story in 2001 before the massive Poker boon. He had many requests to re-print the story and the requesters indicated how much the article had helped their Poker game.
The beginning of the story discusses how important it is to pay attention to the game. No headphones because those make you less attentive to the surroundings. Ray also indicates how he went through all the stages in his Poker career. Ray talks about how important each action in the hand is as it has a direct effect on whether you win or lose the hand and ultimately whether you are a profitable Poker Player. Ray indicates how it is paramount to get or save a bet during the hand. Even now 6 years after originally writing the story he still sees players just calling or checking and missing bets. Click ====> here to read the article.

Stages of a Poker Player

• Total Beginner

Plays too many hands and too loosely, raises foolishly, calls when they should raise. Takes these players a while to learn Poker is more than catching cards.

• Tight Player

Almost all successful Poker Players go through this stage. These players win a fair amount of time due only to their tight play and bad opponents. It is in this stage that the emerging good Poker Player learns that making good plays adds to the profits. Bluffs, speculative raises and some experiments gets the Tight Player headed to the next stage.

• Advanced Stage

Player wins more often, pushes marginal hands and every hand looks like it has value. The Tight Player is long gone. Winning the pots are easy with skillful manipulation. Ray indicates here the player has taken a big step back and long leap forwards at the same time.  The advanced stage, if the player plays too loose, might cause the player to lose his bankroll and never recover. But if the player gets through this stage successfully they move on to the next and final stage.

• Expert Stage

Incorporates tight play with imagination win pots without the best hand. The player has become tight and aggressive. Bluffs, Semi Bluffs and Raises to knock out better hands, good calls at the end are traits shown in this stage that were missing in previous stages.

Ray ends the article by letting the reader know that very few players achieve the Expert level and it takes much work.

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger can only be classified as a Total Beginner. Take a look at the story and see what you think. I know I will have to get to work to move up from ‘Dead Money’ to Donkey as the summer ends and Poker Tournaments get back on the front burner.

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• YouTube of Poker after Dark with Phil Hellmuth

Here is a 3 part video of an appearance Phil Hellmuth made on NBC’s Poker after Dark. Phil has lots of issues with his table mates. The video is found on YouTube. I have put links below for all 3 parts.

Phil Hellmuth Blows Up On Poker After Dark Part 1 of 3

Phil Hellmuth Blows Up On Poker After Dark Part 2 of 3

Phil Hellmuth Blows Up On Poker After Dark Part 3 of 3

The video captures typical Phil Hellmuth table behavior. Complaining about his tablemates. He even goes so far as to inform NBC that he will not be back for any Poker after Dark tournaments. I always find these ‘Acts’ by Phil to be very entertaining and humorous. It took me a long time to come to the conclusion that his table-side manner is all an act. One of the opponents even says Phil is just doing it for more TV time. Phil is not the worst at the table but he is in the top 10. Just as he is in the top 10 Hold ‘Em players worldwide.

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• PTS Reservation Service Announced

PokerNews is reporting today that PTSeats Reservation Service is now accepting Poker Tournament Reservations for the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. The site is reporting that other Casinos in Vegas are ‘Coming Soon’ to the Reservation Service. No more getting to the Tournament site an hour early to ensure you don’t get shut out of the tournament. The PTseats accept credit cards. Poker Tournament buy ins have always been ‘Cash Only’.

The site charges a fee based on a percentage of the buy in for the tournament being ‘purchased’. A quick check of one tournament shows that for a $300 (+$50) tournament, the service charge for providing the seat is $14. So, to buy in early for a $300 (+$50) tournament will cost you $364 via the website. Once you buy in, the website sends you a printable ticket, which you present at the casino with your table and seat number already assigned.

Rather than for just local daily/weekly tournaments, one area this service might be especially good for is for preliminary events to tournament series. For example, right now players can buy in to many of the prelim events at the USPC (held at the Trump Taj Mahal) direct through the website. source

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• WSOP Academy schedules Camp in Atlantic City

WSOP Academy has scheduled a No-Limit Hold ‘Em Camp in Atlantic City on December 1st and 2nd, 2007. The dates are just before the WSOP Circuit event that begins on December 8th, 2007 at Harrah’s Atlantic City. Full details on the Camp can be seen =====> here.

Instructors for the Camp are:

• 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer
• Former FBI Agent Joe Navarro
• Alex Outhred

Camp Agenda includes:

• Live Hand Demonstrations
• Interactive Workshops
• In depth Seminars
• Tournament at end of Day 1 with Champion awarded a seat to the $5,000 WSOP Circuit Event in Atlantic City

The event is limited to the first 100 registrants and organizers fully expect the seats to sell out early. The price tag on this poker-intense weekend is $1,699. For complete details regarding the Atlantic City camp and other WSOP Academy events, visit www.wsopacademy.com or call 1-800-989-WSOP. source

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• PokerStars Guide to Bluffs and Tells

Here is a PokerTubevideo with PokerStars spokesmen Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem. The video in 7 minutes tries to give the basic information about Bluffs and Tells. All 3 have make good points. Raymer discusses how the Bluff has to tell a story that is believable. For example you can’t begin a hand like you have Pocket Aces and when 3 suited cards come on the board all of a sudden bet like you hit a flush. Of course we have all played against somebody that tries to pull that off. Raymer goes on to talk about observing how players bet when they have a hand or when they are bluffing. Hachem talks about since he won the Main Event he isn’t able to bluff much anymore because he always gets called. Moneymaker and Raymer agree that they are no longer able to bluff much.

• Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael doesn’t bluff because he always gives away his bluffs as he gives away all his chips.

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