Phil Hellmuth misses Chance to prove Naysayers Wrong
Posted by PokerPop on 13th June 2011

No world-famous player has lost as much respect from the poker community as Phil Hellmuth in recent years. For one thing, most people just flat-out hate the Poker Brat for his attention-seeking ploys and lack of dedication to the game (recently). Another thing is that Hellmuth has close to zero reputability in the online poker world since he’s absent from both the high stakes cash games and tournaments there. Finally, he has failed to win anything significant since his last WSOP bracelet win in 2007.

In any case, Hellmuth had a chance to regain some of his lost glory this past weekend in the 2011 WSOP. The all-time bracelet leader ran through a field of 124 of the best 2-7 Lowball players in the world to meet John Juanda heads-up.

Fortunately for Hellmuth, he had a decidedly huge chip advantage going into the matchup with Juanda at 3-1. Just based on the chip stacks alone, Hellmuth couldn’t have asked for a better situation as far as adding bracelet #12 went. But he was also facing one of the best and most respected short-handed players in the game in Juanda.

This definitely showed as Juanda made the aforementioned chip advantage disappear, and three hours later, he added a fifth WSOP bracelet to his collection. Phil Jr., on the other hand, missed furthering his place in poker history despite having the perfect conditions to do so.

Nobody felt worse about missing out on the chance to notch another WSOP win than Hellmuth. He tweeted the following after the tournament:

Strange thing: I finished in 2nd place & Won $270,000, but I feel cmpletly awful + i am unconsolable…Congrats 2 the great

Couldn’t sleep, took pajamas off + walked downstairs to “High Roller” bar at Aria Hotel, drinking 4th glass of 25 yr old Macallan Scotch…

Slept 3.5 hours, sigh. Tired, with a headache, still bummed, BUT coming back STRONG Monday!! Took day off, watching Mavs/Heat game + movies

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Gynecologist Geffrey Klein wins 2011 WSOP Event #10
Posted by PokerPop on 10th June 2011

Houston Gynecologist Geffrey Klein took a break from his dream job to win the Event #10: Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em tournament at the 2011 WSOP. After defeating a field of 1,920 players, Klein earned over $544k, his first WSOP cash and his first gold bracelet.

Those in attendance were treated to quite a show since Klein was at a 9-to-1 chip disadvantage going into heads-up play against Eddie Blumenthal. At one point, Klein doubled up three times in a short span through Blumenthal. This episode caused Blumenthal to exclaim, “How can he beat me in that many all-ins, Jesus Christ!”

What’s nice is that Klein wasn’t overly-cocky after the big win, as he admitted there were better, more experienced people in the field. He told reporters, “I can tell you clearly that all of these guys are more skilled than I am at calculating math and reading players and things that come with doing it every day – This isn’t chess. I couldn’t beat the World Champion chess player ever, but because of the swings and the luck factor involved I can actually play with these guys. I feel like I can.” He also added, ““I never expected anything like this. I wanted to do well and play well and get lucky.”

Aside from a gynecologist winning this tournament, another interesting fact about Event #10 is that it was the biggest six-handed tourney in poker history after 1,920 players bought in. This is just one more instance of a 2011 WSOP tournament exceeding attendance expectations.

Many people thought going in that this year’s WSOP would see a severe drop in attendance due to a lowered amount of online prize packages being offered. However, some of the early events have set records such as this six-handed tournament. It will be interesting to see how the attendance figures shape up over the next few weeks.

 

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High Stakes World gets ridiculous with Super Duper High Roller
Posted by PokerPop on 3rd June 2011

For those who thought the $250,000 Super High Roller event we saw at the Aussie Millions was getting ridiculous, the WSOP and Cirque du Soleil founder/high stakes poker fish Guy Laliberté have trumped anything previously imaginable with a $1 million buy-in, Super Duper High Roller tournament that’s set for next year.

What’s amazing is that people are already rushing to front the fortune of a buy-in since Bobby Baldwin, Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, Tony G, Phil Ruffin and Andy Beal are already willing to compete in the tournament. If the event is to meet its 48-player cap, that would create a $48 million prize pool for the select few involved. What’s bad about this is that the winner is almost guaranteed to top the all-time money list, provided the amount of entries gets anywhere near the capped number.

Honestly, it was going far enough when Erik Seidel basically skyrocketed into the all-time money lead courtesy of excellent showings in four High Roller tournaments. And while I’m certainly not taking anything away from Seidel because he’s had an amazing year, as well as a stellar career, the high roller stuff is starting to make a mockery of the all-time winnings list.

But if this Super Duper High Roller event gets off the ground, you might as well throw this entire list out the window. And just imagine if somebody like Andy Beal or Phil Ruffin were to win the tournament; this person would suddenly have one of the most coveted honors in poker. You might as well throw that $10 million buy-in tournament off of Casino Royale into the mix, which would officially put Daniel Craig at the top of the HendonMob rankings.

The only good thing that can come out of the aforementioned high roller tournament is the charitable cause involved, which is Laliberte’s One Drop foundation. The purpose of One Drop is to provide clean drinking water to underdeveloped countries, and 11% of the buy-ins will go to the cause. So assuming 40 people bought in, there would be $4.4 million going to One Drop. And I suppose it’s worth violating the sanctity of tournament poker records to help out those in need.

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Phil Ivey not playing in 2011 WSOP
Posted by PokerPop on 1st June 2011

Drama in the poker world is at an all-time high after Phil Ivey announced earlier today that he is skipping the WSOP in protest of Full Tilt Poker’s non-payment of player funds. He claims it’s wrong for him to play in the WSOP, when so many affected people cannot play in the event. Going further, he is suing FT’s parent company, Tiltware, for damages in excess of $150 million.

All of this has sparked a he-said-she-said battle with both parties taking to the media/Facebook to win public approval. Ivey expressed his thoughts on the issue by posting these comments on his website:

I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm. I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.

My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, through the inactivity and indecision of others and on behalf of all poker players I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts. As I am sure the public can imagine, this was not an easy decision for me.

I wholeheartedly refuse to accept non-action as to repayment of players funds and I am angered that people who have supported me throughout my career have been treated so poorly.

Full Tilt snapped back by sending out the following statement:

Contrary to his sanctimonious public statements, Phil Ivey’s meritless lawsuit is about helping just one player – himself. In an effort to further enrich himself at the expense of others, Mr. Ivey appears to have timed his lawsuit to thwart pending deals with several parties that would put money back in players’ pockets. In fact, Mr. Ivey has been invited — and has declined — to take actions that could assist the company in these efforts, including paying back a large sum of money he owes the site. Tiltware doubts Mr. Ivey’s frivolous and self-serving lawsuit will ever get to court. But if it does, the company looks forward to presenting facts demonstrating that Mr. Ivey is putting his own narrow financial interests ahead of the players he professes to help.

Whatever the case may be in this controversy, it’s sad that one of the top poker players in the world is skipping out on the World Series in favor of chasing a lawsuit against his own poker site. And what happens to the $5 million prop bet that Ivey has with Lederer over winning two bracelets in two years? Is that bet gone now? I guess we’ll get some answers in the upcoming months about both the prop bet and the lawsuit.

 

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Don’t invite Ali Tekintamgac to your Poker Game
Posted by PokerPop on 20th May 2011

Prior to the $25k WPT Championship, Ali Tekintamgac had done a pretty good job of keeping his cheating exploits under wraps. Sure there were plenty of insiders within the poker world that knew of Tekintamgac and his impressive cheating credentials, but the whole poker world was able to find out earlier this week after the German took his seat in the WPT Championship.

Suddenly, stories surfaced about Tekintamgac having hand signals relayed to him from fake photographers and bloggers about opponents’ hole cards. Apparently, Tekintamgac even got kicked out of the Partouche Poker Tour Cannes event after tournament officials reviewed tapes, and deemed that the media pretenders were helping the German with opponents’ hand strengths. In fact, you can judge for yourself whether or not Tekintamgac is cheating in the following video.

Alright, I know that this is a small sample size to judge from, but let’s go through all of the points:

1. Tekintamgac is wearing dark wrap sunglasses that make him look like an old lady out on a Sunday drive. Either he has absolutely zero fashion sense, or Tekintamgac doesn’t want anybody to know that he is staring at the media members for a sign.

2. Note the long pause in between this hand where he doesn’t check his cards until after the camera man has done something with his hand.

3. Expanding upon the camera man, notice how close he is to the opponent. Honestly, even some 2-bit tournament at a VFW hall wouldn’t let a photographer stand this close to the players, so where are the tourney officials? Going further, look how intently he stares at the player’s hole cards before doing something funny with his right hand while looking in Tekintamgac’s direction.

4. Tekintamgac calls the all-in move with Q-5 suited against 8-9 unsuited, which puts him as a 57.5% favorite in the hand. Now even if he was being helped, it’s not like signals can give him the exact hand. However, it’s likely that the signals at least gave Tekintamgac enough of an idea to make the call.

Perhaps the most telling evidence of all in Tekintamgac’s cheating is that he was also kicked out of a Czech Republic casino for hoarding and/or stealing chips from cash games and small tournaments, so he could use reintroduce them in bigger events. Plus there are other rumored instances where Tekintamgac was getting help from his traveling band of goons, who were later exposed as having no media credentials at all.

What’s sad is that Tekintamgac was still allowed to play in the WPT Championship because he had qualified by winning the Spanish Championship. Plus the WPT took a passive stance to his participation because Tekintamgac had already reared his legal fangs by suing the Partouche Poker Tour for taking away prize money. Fortunately, Daniel Negreanu made it his mission to make the German feel as unwelcome as possible by confronting him and sending a barrage of twitter messages (a rare moment where I rooted for Negreanu). Here is a look at some of the tweets that Negreanu sent:

Bellagio/WPT should absolutely not allow this person in the event. He was caught red handed cheating and should be banned. This is absurd.

The cheater just threatened Scott Siever the floor was alerted and won’t do anything about it. Physical threat, he should call the cops.

I’m going to talk to the people at the WSOP in the hopes that we can ensure that this cheater is not welcome at the WSOP.

 

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ESPN to Expand Poker Coverage This Summer
Posted by Ray Finkle on 13th May 2011

With what is anticipated to be a diminished and lackluster turnout at this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) in light of recent industry events and the absence of major sites and their seat qualifiers, it’s a “the show must go on” mentality for ESPN and their poker coverage moving forward. In fact, so much so that for the first time ever, they’re giving viewers six straight days of Main Event coverage, unedited and on a 30-minute tape delay switching back and forth between two feature tables. That’s an unprecedented 34 additional hours of hole cards and all-ins. That’s a lotttttttttt of poker.

“For the first time viewers at home will have the best seats in the house for the [WSOP], poker’s premier event. Fans will see hole cards post-flop and get an inside look at all of the strategy, angst and competition of the world’s best players vying for a seat at the most prestigious final table in the sport,” said Matthew Volk, ESPN manager of programming and acquisitions.

Lon McEachern will now be accompanied by David Tuchman in the announcing booth, some no-name pro who producers decided would give them a similarly braindead product to all their late-night poker broadcast competition. Joining McEachern and Tuchman in the booth will be a revolving door of pros, providing hand analysis. An official list has yet to be announced.

Tuchman brings to an end almost a decade of coverage with Norman Chad as the sole co-announcer to McEachern, who’s dry, self-deprecating humor grew to be a welcome voice of reason to telecasts that were rapidly growing tepid and stale. Chad will, however, resume his role as co-host during the normal season airings, beginning July 26. Will his absence during this six-day event tear apart ratings like the thread of A.J. Benza and Gabe Kaplan being pulled from the fabrics of High Stakes Poker? You’ll have 34 hours to find out for yourself.

ESPN2 air times (32 hours in total) are:

  • Thursday, July 14: 3.5 hours: 8-11:30 pm PT (Footage gathered from 7:30-11 pm)
  • Friday, July 15: 3.5 hours: 8-11:30 pm PT (Footage gathered from 7:30-11 pm)
  • Saturday, July 16: 9 hours: 12:30-7 pm PT; 9-11:30 pm PT (Footage gathered 12-6:30 and 8:30-11 pm)
  • Sunday, July 17: 4.5 hours: 7-11:30 pm PT (Footage gathered from 6:30-11 pm)
  • Monday, July 18: 5.5 hours: 4-7 pm PT; 9-11:30 pm PT (Footage gathered from 3:30-6:30 pm & 8:30-11 pm)
  • Tuesday, July 19: 6 hours: 9 pm to conclusion [3 am PT max] (Footage gathered from 8:30 pm until reaching November Nine)

ESPN air times (2 hours in total) are:

  • Tuesday, July 19: 2 hours: 5-7 pm PT (Footage gathered from 4:30-6:30 pm)

Just why the desire for increased coverage now at one of internet poker’s lowest points is an odd investment of resources. While many pundits believe there to be an obvious correlation between the expected turnouts and recent government seizures, WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart disagrees.

“I believe this is the year when everyone will see just how big poker has become all around the world. This is the year where people will see what a juggernaut this World Series of Poker has become. It is a testament to the fact that the WSOP is more than a poker event, it’s an experience. It’s an annual pilgrimage; it’s a chance to run with the bulls.”

The WSOP in 2010 set record numbers, with the 57 events attracting 72,966 players from 117 countries to create a total prize-pool of $187.1 million. The WSOP brass feels this year will be no different, as the defining poker tournament circuit adds two new events: a $25k No-Limit Hold’Em heads-up event and a six-handed $5k Pot-Limit Omaha.

Regardless of their faith in their product in the midst of the FBI and DOJ intervention, is this too much poker to broadcast? My problem is the lack of variety to ESPN’s coverage, as they have progressively over the years deduced all of poker down to just No-Limit Hold’em games, making a pretty little product for the Average Joe drinking cheap beers on Friday nights to relate to, admire, and consume. It’s a shame really that they market it this way because the different variants that comprise the entire WSOP are just as amazing to learn and exciting to watch. The eclectic mix of action and skillsets and the strategy contained within the separate variants is an enjoyment buffet for anyone considering themselves a poker loyalist. I don’t know about you, but I sure don’t enjoy having ESPN taking away the crab legs and steak carving station and forcing me to eat strictly from the salad bar.

 

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Will Phil Hellmuth win a Bracelet in 2011?
Posted by PokerPop on 10th May 2011

We’re three weeks out from the start of the WSOP, so the questions are already flying around about whether or not Phil Hellmuth will add a 12th bracelet to his collection. Due to his unpopularity and shameless self-promoting antics, most people are hoping that he doesn’t win a bracelet. Of course, being generally disliked doesn’t necessarily mean that he won’t win a bracelet. But the Poker Brat’s inability to keep up with the times is most certainly hurting his bid for another WSOP win.

Hellmuth showed how dated he is when it comes to poker strategy as he whined, “The reason I won 11 bracelets is my ability to read opponents. These new guys are focused on the math. And they are changing everything.”

What hurts Hellmuth though is the fact that he refuses to adapt to this change. Instead, he’d rather work on his WSOP stage entrances, or try to get in pictures with as many famous people as possible. And while nobody’s saying that Daniel Negreanu isn’t this way, at least the crazed Canadian has been willing to better his game.

If you want evidence of this fact, just ask the man himself as Kid Poker said, “The big difference between Phil and me, is that I can see how the game has changed, and that I have to adjust my game as well to be able to continue playing. Phil thinks that its enough to brush his teeth, do some yoga and eat healthy food in order to continue being a winning player.” He finished by stating, “He really believes that it’s enough with a possitive attitude. Instead one should learn to play better poker. All strategies have their weaknesses. I look at all those weaknesses and check how they affect me. This will open up many new opportunities for me, which I can use against my opponents.”

Although I hate to admit it, Negreanu has a very good point. And the bottom line is that Hellmuth isn’t willing to work towards another bracelet. Sure he might luck into another one since he seems to play in several events each year, but it’s not like Hellmuth is on top of the game anymore.

 

 

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Rising Euro Poker Star Max Heinzelmann
Posted by PokerPop on 3rd May 2011

“Second place is the first loser,” is a quote uttered by several famous morons throughout history, who probably finished second place or worse many times in their lives. But German poker player Max Heinzelmann is finding out that second place isn’t really that bad after two huge runner-up finishes in major European Poker Tour events.

Heinzelmann’s latest big runner-up finish came at EPT San Remo earlier today, when he was beaten by the UK’s Rupert Elder in heads-up play. Of course, you can’t really call this much of a loss since he managed to scoop €600,000 ($892,000) in the process.

Incredibly, it was only three weeks ago that Heinzelmann was in the hunt for the EPT Berlin title. He managed to work his way into a heads-up battle with Canadian Benjamin Wilinofsky, before losing a short time into the match and collecting a second place finish. He also added €500,000 ($711,602) to his bankroll.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about all of this is that Heinzelmann was basically a nobody in the poker world just a month ago. He had three tournament cashes and a little over $33,000 in earnings during his two-year live poker career. But with over $1.6 million and two huge EPT finishes in the last three weeks alone, you could make a case that Heinzelmann is a budding star.

If Heinzelmann gets one more huge cash in 2011, he might even get a “pro card” from that cheesy poker league Annie Duke is running.

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WSOP Seats at Carbon Poker
Posted by PokerPop on 29th April 2011

We’re less than a month away from the start of the world’s largest poker event – the WSOP – and Carbon Poker is still awarding prize packages for the Main Event. Your last chance to win a WSOP Main Event seat through Carbon is on May 16th, so you still have some time to get in a satellite and play for your free $10k seat.

The May 16th qualifier features a $460 buy-in, and 1 out of every 30 players in the event will win a WSOP prize package. Even if you aren’t able to pony up $460 for the buy-in, don’t worry because there are tons of satellites and qualifiers running for the seats.

All you need to do to find these qualifiers is visit the Carbon Poker lobby, and click the “Satellites” tab under Tournaments. Once you do this, you can sort through the satellites based on entry fee and field size to find what you’re looking for. The satellites range in price from $2 to $60, so there is a little something for everybody here.

If you are able to book your ticket for Sin City through Carbon, you’ll no doubt be playing for yet another multi-million prize pool. In fact, the WSOP Main Event winner always hauls in several million dollars, so playing satellites for the sake of this dream alone is worth the effort!

And don’t forget that Carbon runs plenty of satellites for other live events such as the Aussie Millions, WPT Cyprus and more.

 

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Irish Open Winner Niall Smyth owes his Girlfriend Big
Posted by PokerPop on 27th April 2011

It’s funny how one small twist of fate can lead to a €550,500 victory in the Irish Open. Such was the case with 22-year-old Niall Smyth, who needed a chain reaction of events to spark what would turn into the victory of his life.

It all started when Smyth’s girlfriend Kim Madigan was telling him about how she bets once a year on the English Grand National. After Smyth placed a €20 bet, his horse “Ballabriggs” won the event, and he earned €200 for picking the right pony. Now €200 richer, the young Irishman took the money and deposited it into an online poker site so that he could play for an Irish Open seat.

Luck struck Smyth a second time when he managed to win a €3,500 Irish Open seat along with hotel accommodations through his €200 bankroll. Good fortune continued to shine upon Smyth as he ran through a 615-player field towards the final opponent – Surinder Sunar. Smyth had better than a 2-1 chip advantage going into the heads-up match, and despite some fierce resistance from Sunar, he was able to finish the tournament and collect a €550k prize.

Besides all of the stars aligning just right for Smyth to be at this tournament, another crazy thing is that he only had €30,400 in total cashes heading into this life-changing experience. Sure €30,400 is pretty solid for the average player – especially at age 22 – but it’s a pretty big leap to go from this to an Irish Open victory.

 

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