With only Event 57 to be decided, and my fantasy poker team in great form, here is a look back at the 2009 World Series of Poker.
It was a year of multiple-bracelet winners, some dominant performances and packed card rooms at the RIO – and all over the strip.
As usual, we saw a lot of first-time winners and more established online players rising above the brick and mortar crowd to get some of the coveted jewelry.
CarbonPoker player, JP Kelly took down the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event in my favorite result of the 09 WSOP.
Below is the full list of events and winners from this year’s action:
| WSOP Event | Winner |
|---|---|
| Event #1 Casino Employees NLHE – $500 | Andrew Cohen – $83,778 |
| Event #2 No Limit Hold’em – $40K | Vitaly Lunkin – $1,891,012 |
| Event #3 Omaha Hi-Lo Split-8 or Better – $1,500 | Thang Luu – $263,135 |
| Event #4 No Limit Hold’em – $1,000 | Steve Sung – $771,106 |
| Event #5 Pot Limit Omaha – $1,500 | Jason Mercier – $237,415 |
| Event #6 World Championship 7 Card Stud – $10K | Freddie Ellis – $373,744 |
| Event #7 No Limit Hold’em – $1,500 | Travis Johnson – $666,853 |
| Event #8 2-7 Draw Lowball – $2,500 | Phil Ivey – $96,361 |
| Event # 9 No Limit Hold’em Short Handed – $1,500 | Ken Aldridge – $428,259 |
| Event #10 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha – $2,500 | Rami Boukai – $244,862 |
| Event #11 No Limit Hold’em – $2,000 | Anthony Harb – $569,199 |
| Event #12 World Championship Mixed Event – $10K | Ville Wahlbeck – $492,375 |
| Event #13 No Limit Hold’em – $5K | Keven Stammen – $506,786 |
| Event #14 Limit Hold’em Short Handed – $2,500 | Brock Parker – $223,688 |
| Event #15 No Limit Hold’em – $5K | Brian Lemke – $692,658 |
| Event #16 Seven Card Stud – $1,500 | Jeff Lisandro – $124,959 |
| Event #17 Ladies No Limit Hold’em – $1,000 | Lisa Hamilton – $195,390 |
| Event #18 Omaha Hi-Lo Split-8 or Better – $10K | Daniel Alaei – $445,898 |
| Event #19 No Limit Hold’em Short Handed – $2,500 | Brock Parker – $552,745 |
| Event #20 Pot Limit Hold’em – $1,500 | JP Kelly – $194,434 |
| Event #21 HORSE – $3K | Zac Fellows – $311,899 |
| Event #22 No Limit Hold’em Shootout – $1,500 | Jeff Carris – $313,673 |
| Event #23 2-7 Draw Lowball – $10K | Nick Schulman – $279,742 |
| Event #24 No Limit Hold’em – $1,500 | Peter Vilandos – $607,256 |
| Event #25 Omaha/7 Card Stud Hi-Lo or Better – $5K | Phil Ivey – $220,538 |
| Event #26 Limit Hold’em – $1,500 | Tomas Alenius – $197,488 |
| Event #27 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split-8 Better – $5K | Roland De Wolfe – $246,616 |
| Event #28 NO Limit Hold’em – $1,500 | Mike Eise – $639,331 |
| Event #29 Heads Up No Limit Hold’em – $10K | Leo Wolpert – $625,682 |
| Event #30 Pot Limit Omaha – $2,500 | JC Tran – $235,685 |
| Event #31 HORSE – $1,500 | James Van Alstyne – $247,033 |
| Event #32 No Limit Hold’em – $2K | Angel Guillen – $530,548 |
| Event #33 Limit Hold’em – $10K | Greg Mueller – $460,836 |
| Event #34 No Limit Hold’em – $1,500 | Eric Baldwin – $521,932 |
| Event #35 Pot Limit Omaha – $5K | Richard Austin – $409,484 |
| Event #36 No Limit Hold’em – $2K | Jordan Smith – $586,212 |
| Event #37 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split 8 Better – $10K | Jeff Lisandro – $431,656 |
| Event #38 Limit Hold’em – $2K | Marc Naalden – $190,770 |
| Event #39 No Limit Hold’em – $1,500 | Ray Foley – $657,969 |
| Event #40 Pot Limit Omaha – $10K | Matt Graham – $679,379 |
| Event #41 No Limit Hold’em Shootout – $5K | Peter Traply – $348,728 |
| Event #42 Mixed Event – $2,500 | Jerrod Ankenman – $241,637 |
| Event #43 Seniors No Limit Hold’em – $1,000 | Michael Davis – $437,358 |
| Event #44 Razz – $2,500 | Jeff Lisandro – $188,370 |
| Event #45 Pot Limit Hold’em – $10K | John Kabbaj – $633,335 |
| Event #46 Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8 or Better – $2,500 | Derek Raymond – $229,192 |
| Event #47 Mixed Hold’em – $2,500 | Bahador Ahmadi – $278,804 |
| Event #48 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8 or Better – $1,500 | Brandon Cantu – $228,867 |
| Event #49 HORSE Championship – $10K | David Bach – $1,276,802 |
| Event #50 Limit Hold’em Shootout – $1,500 | Greg Mueller – $194,854 |
| Event #51 No Limit Hold’em – $1,500 | Carsten Joh – $664,426 |
| Event #52 Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em – $3K | Jorg Peisert – $506,800 |
| Event #53 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo-8 or Better – $1,500 | David Halpern – $159,390 |
| Event #54 No Limit Hold’em – $1,500 | Tony Veckey – $637,276 |
| Event #55 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball – $2,500 | Abe Mosseri – $165,521 |
| Event #56 No Limit Hold’em Short Handed – $5K | Matt Hawrilenko – $1,003,163 |
Among the most attractive prospects to poker players with small bankrolls is the concept of poker satellites. A satellite allows players to earn their way into huge online tournaments or even win a seat in a giant land-based tourney all for the cost of a few dollars or more.
Unfortunately, the drawback to satellites is that the cheap buy-ins allow tons of people to enter them which makes for some huge tournaments. This is why you need to have a sound strategy for wading your way through these enormous events. But the strategy will change depending upon which type of satellite you enter.
Winner Takes All
As the name implies, a winner takes all satellite means that only one person is going to emerge victorious. Some satellites will award other players with additional prizes such as online tournament credits, but the big prize is going to the top person. Aside from the fact that you obviously need some luck here, there is also strategy to be employed too.
The basic strategy is that you’re going to be doing a lot of pushing since you need to double up frequently. The goal isn’t to slide into the final table, it’s to win! You need to play aggressively and build a big chip stack early just to have a chance. You also have to have the mentality that, if you lose, you’re only out a few bucks anyways.
Multiple Package Satellites
Satellites which award multiple packages (or entries to the next tournament level) allow you to play a little more relaxed since you don’t even need to win to be a winner. As long as you make it past the bubble, you’ve automatically earned your prize. For the most part, you can play these multiple package satellites more like regular tournaments while looking to pick spots and build your chip stack in a normal manner.
Of course you need to get pretty aggressive when the bubble draws near if you’re one of the short stacks in the satellites. That’s because everyone at this outset plays pretty tight seeing as how they’re almost in the prize package area, and this is your best chance to steal blinds and small pots.
Freerollers, unite!
Hit the tables today (July 9, 2009) for your daily pile of freedom.
As you know, these are you daily opportunities to get out, play for free and win some real cash money in your CarbonPoker account. Stack it up!
I’ve listed 5 of the top events, but if you look around through the admin, you just might find another one or two others.
Daily First Deposit Freeroll – 13:15pm
$50 Freeroll – HORSE – 12:15pm
$50 Freeroll – NL Holdem – 08:15am
$50 Freeroll – Short Stack – 04:15am
$50 Freeroll NL Holdem – 00:15am
There you have’em. Stay tuned today for more announcements and tourneys this week. Another comment of the week contest? More blogger tourneys? Wait and see.
GL at the tables.
This is tougher than a bracelet
OK – I’ll probably take some flack for this in the comments, but I’ve never really been a fan of the WSOP bracelets. Until this year, bracelets weren’t even awarded at a ceremony. They were handed out at about 3am in front of some bleary eyed players around the final tables.
I OBVIOUSLY understand the prestige of winning a WSOP event. But a bracelet? Poker badass/curmudgeon, Doyle Brunson didn’t even bother to pick up a few of the ones that he won.
Seriously. Can you imagine many guys that would want to wear the bracelet if it didn’t hold the connotation of a WSOP winner? I wouldn’t. That’s for sure. If you’re wearing long sleeves, you can’t even guarantee people will see it.
That’s why I’m proposing this simple solution: award WWE-style championship belts in lieu of gold bracelets. Don’t tell me that wouldn’t rule, because it would.
Fact: I can’t think of anything better for poker than walking into the Rio with a belt around my waist and one slung across my shoulder.
OK, guys. You know the drill.
This Sunday, all of our Twitter followers are going to be facing off in a $250 Twitter Freeroll.
These tourneys are free, fun and packed with players. We’ve been really close to 1000 players, but when we finally crack the number, we’ll double the prizepool to $500!
We get a lot of questions on how to register, so here are the 3 simple steps:
1. Follow CarbonPoker on Twitter
2. Visit the secure Twitter page in the admin
3. Enter your username, get confirmation number.
Sound good? Yep. It’s that easy.
Here are the details of the tourney:
2,500 Starting Chips
4min breaks every 60min
$250 Twitter ‘Follower’ Freeroll
Start Time: Sunday 5th July @ 2:30pm Server Time
$250 prizepool
RT this, send it to friends, post it around. We want to pack this event even more and double up the prizes.
Good luck out there!
In addition to the coveted gold bracelet and prestige that comes with the WSOP Main Event win, 2009’s winner is going to pull some serious cash. 6,494 competitors will be playing for an $8.5 million top prize.
In a pretty loaded year, 648 players are going to finish in the money. The top 60 players will finish $100,000+.
Players began the tournament slugging it out on 308 tables spread throughout the Rio Poker Room, The Miranda Room, Brazilia Room, and Buzio’s Seafood Restaurant
Here is how the Final Table will shake out in November:
1 – $8.5 Million
2 – $5,182, 601
3 – $3,479,485
4 – $2,502,787
5 – $1,953,395
6 – $1,587,133
7 – $1,404,002
8 – $1,300,228
9 – 1,263,602
For those of you keeping track at home, the prize pool is over $61 million. This is the third largest Main Event prize ever.
We’re heading into the first of the Day 2s, inching towards the biggest event of the poker calendar in November.
With many multiple bracelet winners and cashers in this year’s World Series of Poker, there are plenty of players on hot streaks.
The rich prize pool and hyped coverage are going to turn 2009’s Main Event into quite a spectacle. Keep reading the CarbonPoker blog for more coverage, updates, leaders and forecasts.
Congrats to one of our own! JP Kelly took down the UK’s first bracelet of the 2009 World Series of Poker – and the first of the year for a CarbonPoker player.
JP won his way through 633 competitors to take down the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event. The tournament featured 8-time winner Eric Seidel and a heads up finale against Marc Tschirch.
The 23-year-old ran great through the tournament, and held a dominant lead during the final action. Kelly won $194,434 for the victory to go along with his first bracelet.
Here are the final table results:
1. John-Paul Kelly – $194,434
2. Marc Tschirch – $120,102
3. Jason Dewitt – $78,826
4. Kyle Carlston – $54,711
5. Aaron Virchis – $40,048
6. Tony Steward – $30,837
7. Erik Seidel – $24,919
8. Andrew Radel – $21,082
9. Ravi Raghavan – $18,637
This is a great win for Kelly on the 3-day event. The WSOP is poker’s biggest stage and JP was calm and classy in victory.
The $50,000 World Championship of H.O.R.S.E. is regarded by many to be the toughest tournament at the World Series of Poker. That’s because the high buy-in usually keeps lesser players out while only attracting the most successful pros in the business. Unfortunately, the high buy-in seemed to keep just about everybody out of the 2009 World Championship of H.O.R.S.E. since only 95 players entered it.
Of course David Bach wasn’t complaining about the low turnout since he made his way through the 95 person field and won the tournament. However, Bach had to go through an always tough H.O.R.S.E. championship crowd which included the likes of Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, and Erick Lindgren. None of these three were around towards the end though, but Erik Siedel, Huck Seed, Gus Hansen, John Hanson, and Vitaly Lunkin were.
Gus Hansen busted out in 9th place while Erik Siedel fell short in a bid for his 9th gold bracelet and finished in 8th place. Huck Seed and Vitaly Lunkin also made strong bids for the win before being knocked out in 5th and 4th place. By the end of the tournament, only John Hanson and David Bach remained.
And this would be a long ending too since Hanson and David Bach battled with each other for over 7 hours before Bach emerged the victor. David Bach commented on his victory afterwards by mentioning how his professional bowling experience helped him survive the marathon heads-up session. He said, “In bowling, you have to control your body and your mind at the same time. In poker, you only have to control your mind. So, all that training of controlling the mind and body helps make the pressure of poker much easier.”
After winning the H.O.R.S.E. Championship and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, Bach pocketed $1,276,802. However, this is a far cry from the $1,989,120 that Scotty Nguyen won in the 2008 World Championship of H.O.R.S.E. when 145 players entered.
Brandon Cantu became a multi-WSOP gold bracelet holder after he took his second one in winning Event #48. It wasn’t easy for Cantu though since he had to battle a field of 762 players in this $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo (8’s or Better) event.
Perry Friedman jumped out to the early lead on Day 1 with 144,500 chips, but Brandon Cantu wasn’t trailing by much as he was sitting in 4th place with 105,000. Of course Friedman would give way to Cantu on Day 2 as Brandon jumped out to a huge chip lead going into the final table at 1,025,000; the next closes person to him going into Day 3 was Mathieu Jacqmin with 552,000.
Unfortunately for Cantu, his nearly 2-to-1 chip lead over the rest of the field would dissipate over the course of the final table. Cantu hung in though, and was able to survive long enough to face off against Lee Watkinson and Jacqmin in the end. Watkinson would receive a huge boost to his chip stack when he busted Jacqmin out with a set of queens.
Going into heads-up play, it was Watkinson holding the commanding 2.5-to-1 chip lead over Cantu as he had 2,485,000 chips to Cantu’s 945,000. Amazingly though, Cantu was able to battle back and even take the lead at some points before taking the lead for good on a hand where he only held a pair of 6’s. The final hand saw Cantu hit trip 4’s which Watkinson couldn’t come close to beating, and Cantu had earned his 2nd bracelet along with $228,867 for the victory.
This win was sweet for Cantu since he just missed getting his second bracelet in Event #39 while Watkinson is definitely disappointed after missing out on his second bracelet, but will still pocket $141,873 for getting 2nd place.
