Poker: Million $ Buy In

[johnnya24]

Here's the seating chart:



Bob (Haralabos Voulgaris) has the BINGO seat ... to the left of Phil "do I have a straight" Ruffin and Guy LaLiberte ... and 3 other businessmen (aka fishies). There was talk on twitter of reassigning the seats because the seat order was leaked before the super-sat last night (won by Gus Hansen). Bob understandably wasn't happy and was preemptively talking about the legal ramifications (wisely IMO).

The top right table is just sick sick sick! I bet Brandon Steven asked for his money back right away ... he has Ivey, Seidel and Rajkumar to his left and Lamb, Schulman and Esfandiari to his right LOLOLOL. He will NEVER be able to enter a pot without at least a 3-bet.

If I were him after seeing that draw and send out an SOS for Patrick Antonius or some other high stakes sicko.

[johnnya24]

twitter:

@haralabob True story, one of the players in the One Drop hired my cleaning lady, then haggled her with her for 3 days over 30 bucks on her fee.

I wonder if this guy tips the dealer

Gotta be a Las Vegas Pro ... candidates:

Justin Smith (seems like a total dik)
Phil Galfond (seems unlikely ... unless his spread sheets told him he was -EV on the cleaning bill)
Andrew Robl (seems the type who would argue the toss of a coin)
Eric Seidel (maybe ... seems a nice guy ... but you never know when it comes to money)
Tom Marchese (another maybe)
Mike Sexton (an old timer ... wants to stick to a deal ... losing his memory and forgets deal with cleaner ... thinks he right when he's wrong?)

Dan Shak ... not a Las Vegas pro ... but he's suing his ex-wife over her shoe bill ... it was a million $ shoe bill though.
Also any of the Germans

[johnnya24]

Live now ... http://www.wsop.com/2012/live-video/live-video.asp

[johnnya24]

Justin Smith (seems like a total dik)

As the rest of the players we going on break, we happened upon a huge pot between Justin "Boosted J" Smith and Frederique Banjout. There was a little over a million in the pot with a board reading

2c 6s 8h As 4s

and Banjout had moved all in for 2.163 million.
Smith was sitting in contemplation and waited for the dealer to get an exact count. A few of the other players found their way back to watch the hand, and out of nowhere Smith said, "I call."
Banjout then stood from his chair and slapped down

Ks Qs

for the nuts. Smith was devastated and tossed his cards to the muck, though tournament rules state the hand must be shown. Per the floor's instruction, the dealer turned over Smith's hand . . . .

7h 5h

Smith thought he had been eliminated, but after the stacks were counted down, he was left with just 30,000.

Horrible call in that spot ... total amateur donk call. He had 2.3 million back, and he couldn't let it go. That wasn't even a cooler.

[Mithrandir]

Horrible call in that spot ... total amateur donk call. He had 2.3 million back, and he couldn't let it go. That wasn't even a cooler.

Easy to say this after the fact.

[johnnya24]

Easy to say this after the fact.

Hero call ... he was only beating a total bluff. His straight was basically the same value as A high. Horrible time to be making huge calls like that ... especially with your tournament life on the line. Even if he's right and he wins, he only has $6m chips. That was a nuts of nothing call ... these kinds of calls are usually huge leaks in a players game. And even worse, it was against an amateur who he will have had no hand history with. Such a donk call.

One Russian guy called Smirnov has already folded quad 8's on a board where only a straight flush could have beaten him. So the story goes, his opponent nearly jumped out of his skin when he hit the 8 of spades hit on the turn. When an raising war started on the river, the guy re-shipped all in for $3.4m, and Smirnov was convinced he had the straight flush and folded quad 8's face up.

Hellmuth chip leader when he got an amateur to bet off $3m preflop AA v KK. Hellmuth basically rolled his cards over when he made a gigantic overraise preflop ... every pro at the table knew what that meant. Unfortunately for the amateur, he didn't. Hard to fold KK I suppose.

[GwynnInTheHall]

Hero call ... he was only beating a total bluff. His straight was basically the same value as A high. Horrible time to be making huge calls like that ... especially with your tournament life on the line. Even if he's right and he wins, he only has $6m chips. That was a nuts of nothing call ... these kinds of calls are usually huge leaks in a players game. And even worse, it was against an amateur who he will have had no hand history with. Such a donk call.

One Russian guy called Smirnov has already folded quad 8's on a board where only a straight flush could have beaten him. So the story goes, his opponent nearly jumped out of his skin when he hit the 8 of spades hit on the turn. When an raising war started on the river, the guy re-shipped all in for $3.4m, and Smirnov was convinced he had the straight flush and folded quad 8's face up.

Hellmuth chip leader when he got an amateur to bet off $3m preflop AA v KK. Hellmuth basically rolled his cards over when he made a gigantic overraise preflop ... every pro at the table knew what that meant. Unfortunately for the amateur, he didn't. Hard to fold KK I suppose.

If you are around the game long enough, you are rarely surprised when hands come over on the river. Once in a while, but not that often. It's all about paying attention, knowing the players and considering the action, position and board. I can pretty much push up the winning hand before the cards come over, at least 8 out of 10 times. I'd wager (for fun JC, for fun) that there are a couple of you in here who can do the same.

[johnnya24]

If you are around the game long enough, you are rarely surprised when hands come over on the river. Once in a while, but not that often. It's all about paying attention, knowing the players and considering the action, position and board. I can pretty much push up the winning hand before the cards come over, at least 8 out of 10 times. I'd wager (for fun JC, for fun) that there are a couple of you in here who can do the same.

Especially in limit poker ... pretty easy to call the hands. I've seen a lot of people get in trouble trying to put people on exact-hands in NL rather than hand-ranges.

FWIW ... the consensus is that the other guy had the straight flush, and that the quad 8's were dead. So looks like a great laydown.



Of course the big story is not that Smirnov folded quads, but rather that a Russian actually folded a hand. What's next? Will they discover a Brazilian who can fold?

EDIT: I guess we'll find out today if it was super-nitty play or a super-awesome read.

Day 2 Table draw - Table 446

1 Cary Katz 2,785,000
2 Bill Perkins 885,000
3 Guy Laliberté 6,555,000
4 Phil Galfond 445,000
5 Tom Dwan 4,810,000 <----------------- fearless maniac +
6 Daniel Negreanu 470,000
7 Mikhail Smirnov 4,680,000 <------------ will fold quads on river
8 --Empty-- N/A

= WIN

*POPCORN SMILEY NEEDED*

[johnnya24]

Ivey has drawn another pretty sick table

Table 448


Seat Player Count
1 Gus Hansen 6,800,000
2 Haralabos Voulgaris 2,250,000
3 Brian Rast 10,710,000
4 Philipp Gruissem 3,600,000
5 Bobby Baldwin 4,225,000
6 Rick Salomon 3,285,000
7 Phil Ivey 2,840,000
8 Phil Hellmuth 8,395,000


[senorsheep]

I've read a bunch of articles outlining what a bunch of degenerates the vast majority of professional poker players are. These guys win massive amounts of money but are always behind in their debts.

These guys also lose massive amounts of money, and quickly. I have no idea what percentage are true welchers - they have the money, but don't pay their debts - vs. guys who are in a downswing and genuinely don't have the money to cover their debts at any particular point in time. Neither situation reflects well on the debtor, obviously.

I was playing in a charity tournament in Vegas with some big name pros, and some guy made a remak to Antonio Efandiari about the supposed wealth of celebrity poker pros. Esfandiari snickered and said, "Trust me, when you watch any episode of Poker After Dark or High Stakes Poker, at least half the guys at the table are broke and playing with someone else's money."

[johnnya24]

I've read a bunch of articles outlining what a bunch of degenerates the vast majority of professional poker players are. These guys win massive amounts of money but are always behind in their debts. There was a story floating around about Eric Lindgren and, despite his very personable on-air TV presence, the guy appears to be pretty much just a total and complete loser. Guys that aren't total douchebags are the exception in poker, not the rule.

Yeah ... many complete degens. Lindgren is a piece of sh!T degen gambler ... who owes MILLIONS to people ... and he was taking about a hundred thousand a month from Full Tilt Poker (I think it was $100K EDIT: no ... $250K!!). You probably heard about him because he failed to pay up in a $100K fantasy league. That is a small fraction of what he owes. The fantasy league debt is just the tip of the iceberg with this guy (read post 6). Rumors are that he owes millions ($5-10m), and he got into that position because people just assumed that the FTP gravy train would keep rolling. He was also staking lots of other players with his borrowed money.

Not to mention Howard Lederer and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson ... two of the most famous and visible poker players in the world ... responsible for stealing $10's of millions in player funds at Full Tilt Poker. If these guys ever show their face at a poker room they will probably be beaten half to death.

Here are the 4 people who took massive amounts of "loans" from FTP (out of the online player funds).

Phil Ivey
Layne Flack
David Benyamine
Erick Lindgren

EACH one a seriously fked up degenerate gambler. Who the hell would lend money to Layne Flack and David Benyamine, let alone millions? In another life they are hanging around rail stations begging for train fare home. Only Phil Ivey has the funds to cover his debts (I don't know if he paid back, or intends to ... he seems to have been welcomed back into the poker community). Tom Dwan has said he will pay back everything.

The good guys? Negreanu seems like a really genuine good guy. Esfandiari? Laak? I'm sure there are plenty of others. No surprise to see it's usually the egotistical publicity hungry douchebags who turn out to be the biggest degen losers.

Previously you would have said Scotty Ngyen until this ruined his reputation (edit: forgot that Lindgren was at this table ... and Layne Flack acting like a clown in the background ... horrible):

[johnnya24]

Final Table set:

1 Guy Laliberté Canada 52 21,700,000
Multi billionaire founder of Circ De Soleil. Founder of the One Drop Charity, and organizer of the event. High stakes player. Very solid game. Seems unfazed.

2 Brian Rast USA 30 11,350,000
Very highly regarded professional poker player and PPC champion last year.

3 Phil Hellmuth USA 47 10,925,000
Most famous poker player? Keeps getting maligned by the pros and online poker kids ... keeps finding ways to get to final tables with unorthodox play. Must be doing something right. I think a strong element of the success of his game is that he doesn't care how his play looks. He folds in positions no other players would consider folding, and doesn't seem to care if the whole room is laughing at him.

4 Antonio Esfandiari USA 33 39,925,000
Another famous poker face ... bossed the leaderboard all day yesterday. Would be favorite if he didn't have Sam Trickett on his left.

5 Bobby Baldwin USA 62 7,150,000
Former WSOP Main Event winner ... but basically a semi-pro businessman / Casino winner these days. Worst seat at the table. Won't last long IMO. Needs to gamble it up early to neutralize his position between Esfandiari and Trickett.

6 Sam Trickett UK 26 37,000,000
One of the very best young high stakes players in the world. Chipped up fast at the final 2 tables, and took out a lot of players. Best seat at the table. Probably the favorite.

7 Richard Yong China 54 7,475,000
Super rich Malaysian businessman. Plays the very highest stakes games in the world. Looks like a good aggressive player. Playing for pocket change.

8 David Einhorn USA 43 8,375,000
Hedge fund manager. Giving all his winnings to charity. Seems like a solid player, and would be a great advert for the game if he wins and gives it all away.

---------------

2 former WSOP Main Event winners (Hellmuth and Baldwin), 3 super-rich businessmen (and good players ... no scared money), 3 of the best poker players in the world (Esfandiari, Trickett and Rast).

FYI ... the remaining "businessmen" look a lot more comfortable than the pros. Sam Trickett is the favourite because he has position over Esfandiari, which will be telling when they get short handed.

This should be a fast final table. The prize pool is ridiculously top heavy, so you will see a lot of all in and calls early IMO. I'll be surprised if we don't get 4-handed fairly quick (within 1 hour). There is no value in getting 5th, 6th or 7th ... so you'll see people gambling it up as they try to get in contention. Best case scenario from an entertainment perspective, is that the two big stacks sit back, and let the other guys fight it out so we get 4/5 handed with 4/5 big stacks.

But this won't happen ... it's not optimal strategy for the big stacks. I expect Esfandiari and Trickett to try and isolate the smaller stacks and make sure they don't double each other up. Esfandiari and Trickett know that they must make the action come through them to give themselves the best chance of getting to the very big money. Esfandiari must hate his seat. It will be interesting to see if Trickett goes after Esfandiari, or if they try and avoid each other. Even though they are aggressive players, even they must be in awe of the prize money:

1 18,346,673 <--- highest first place prize in sports / games history.
2 10,112,001
3 4,352,000
4 2,645,333
5 1,834,666 <--- less than double the cost of the buy in (i.e. stupid!)
6 1,621,333
7 1,408,000
8 1,237,333

[GwynnInTheHall]

Last year I dealt a 3 handed Chinese poker game to Ted Forrest, Barry Shulman and Mike Matasow. 24 hours later they were still there playing in the same seats at the same table. Chinese poker is about as challenging as flipping coins. less than a month later Mike was begging buy ins at the Palms. These guys blow through money like pro athletes and when they go bust they leverage their fame to borrow money, which may or may not come back. I remember my first big tourney in which I cashed, I was taken aside (because I was pretty young) and warned not to loan any money to the "pro" railing the final table--TJ Cloutier. Add to that the online scandal FTP/UB and you've a whole industry who's toop stars are less than desirable. Maybe our parents were right to have a poor opinion of those who gamble. i know I'll be steering my kids away from gaming.

[johnnya24]

Last year I dealt a 3 handed Chinese poker game to Ted Forrest, Barry Shulman and Mike Matasow. 24 hours later they were still there playing in the same seats at the same table. Chinese poker is about as challenging as flipping coins. less than a month later Mike was begging buy ins at the Palms. These guys blow through money like pro athletes and when they go bust they leverage their fame to borrow money, which may or may not come back. I remember my first big tourney in which I cashed, I was taken aside (because I was pretty young) and warned not to loan any money to the "pro" railing the final table--TJ Cloutier. Add to that the online scandal FTP/UB and you've a whole industry who's toop stars are less than desirable. Maybe our parents were right to have a poor opinion of those who gamble. i know I'll be steering my kids away from gaming.

Craps right? I've heard he's a notorious craps degenerate. Won millions at the poker table (when there wasn't as much money around as now), lost it all (and more) playing craps. How much money has this guy personally taken out of the poker economy over the years? Casino's must love guys like Cloutier ... every time he won a tourney the casino must have thought "great! and extra 30% rake from the field! .... this way to the pit Mr Cloutier"

Chinese is more like roshambo than poker. Not surprised guys like Ivey, Forrest and Matusow play it for stupid $ per point.

[johnnya24]

Incidentally, the 9th place guy got paid $1.1m. This is just the TV final table, not the overall final table. The final hand was interesting. Mike Sexton (the host of the WPT), who had been playing super solid for the entire tourney basically lost his head for a moment after cashing in 9th. He shipped the turn with second pair and flush draw in a really polarized spot versus the massive table chip leader. He was either behind and drawing (in which case the big stack in NEVER folding) or he's comfortably ahead, in which case he's losing value with the shove. The pot was controlled, he could have easily have called the turn and even a river bet and still have had $5/6m left. Crazy suicide shove IMO ... I think he just lost concentration for a moment after cashing and decided to go for it in a moment of madness. He'll be thinking about that play for a long time. He looked furious with himself afterwards. It would have been nice to see him make the TV table ... would have been good for poker.