Poker Mom

Imagine my surprise when I took another peek at the Live WSOP Updates to see that Event 48 has completed.  Just a few minutes ago, the two players were only separated by $1 million in chips.  The latest update shows that Alexandre Gomes from Brazil has emerged as the winner and takes home the coveted WSOP bracelet as well as a $770,540 first-place prize.

The $2,000 buy-in event started with 2317 players and the final hand played out like this (courtesy of the Live WSOP Updates page)

“Alexandre Gomes raised it up to 300,000 and Marco Johnson moved all in for approximately 3,000,000. Alexandre Gomes instantly made the call. Gomes: AK  Spades Johnson: JQ Spades Board: 3H, 2H, 4D, AC, 4C.  When the final card hit the board, Gomes gallery exploded in celebration that lasted approximately five minutes.”

The 2008 WSOP Horse Championship is down to five players.  Michael DeMichele is in the chip lead with $4.2 million in chips, Scotty Nguyen is second with $3.3 million and Erick Lindgren is in third with $2.3 million.  Fourth place finds Matt Glantz with $1.3 million and Lyle Berman is the short stack with $1.25 million.  The players are currently on dinner break.

Of the final five, only DeMichele and Glantz are without WSOP bracelets.  Until the 2008 WSOP, Lindgren would have joined that list but he finally joined the ranks of bracelet winners in the 2008 Mixed Hold’Em $5,000 buy-in event.

In other WSOP news, Event #48, a $2,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event is down to its final two players.  Alexandre Gomes is in the chip lead with just over $5.1 million in chips and Marco Johnson is not far behind with a tad over $4 million.  From the looks of it, neither of these players has a bracelet to their name so I imagine both to be playing their A-game!

Many in the poker community feel that the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the World Series of Poker is the true main event.  One trick ponies (aka Hold’em only players) don’t fare well at the HORSE event.  The 2008 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. Event #45 featured 148 entrants at $50,000 a pop with a first place prize of almost $2 million. 

As of this evening’s report, 42 players remain and the top 10 is a Who’s Who of poker.  Barry Greenstein has the chip lead and has for a large majority of the evening.  He is sitting pretty with $800,000 in chips.  In seventh place is Huck Seed with $640,000.  Other big name players still in the running include Andy Bloch, Chad Brown, David Oppenheim, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu and Gabe Kaplan. 

Every year, the World Series of Poker crowns a Player of the Year.  The WSOP grants points for individuals based on what place they finish in certain events.  The player with the most points will be declared the 2008 World Series of Poker Player of the Year.

The current player of the year rankings have Jacobo Fernandez in first place with 227 WSOP POY points.  While Fernandez has not won a bracelet in the 2008 WSOP, he has cashed six times for a total of $653,040 in earnings.  In second place is high stakes poker aficionado David Benyamine with 220 points.  Benyamine has cashed four times and earned on bracelet this year. 

The rest of the top five are John Phan in third with 215 points, two bracelets and four cashes; Barry Greenstein with 190 points, one bracelet and five cashes; and Erick Lindgren with 185 points, one bracelet and five cashes.  My favorite poker player, Daniel Negreanu (the 2004 Bluff Magazine POY) is in sixth place with 170 points, one bracelet and four cashes.

The dates for the European Poker Tour (EPT) Season 5 have been announced.  The EPT Barcelona Open will be held from September 10-14, 2008 at the Casino Barcelona and is capped at 600 entrants.  The EPT London event will be held at the Victoria Casino from October 1-5, 2008.  The tour will then travel to Warsaw, Poland for the EPT Polish Open at the Hyatt Regency.  The Polish Open will be held from November 15-19, 2008 but will not be part of the televised EPT events.

December 9-13 will find the EPT in Prague at the Hilton.  The Barriere Casino in Deauville, France will host a 700 person event but the dates have not been confirmed.  Based on the schedule, it appears that the EPT Deauville event will likely be held in January 2009.

Casino Copenhagen will host the EPT Scandinavian Open from February 17-21, 2009.  Germany is next on the list with the Casino Hohensyburg in Dortmund hosting the EPT German Open from March 10-14, 2009.  Beautiful San Remo, Italy is the next to the last stop on the fifth season of the EPT with an 800 person max event scheduled for April 18-23, 2009. 

The EPT Grand Final will be held in ultra luxurious Monaco at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort beginning on April 28, 2009.  The EPT Grand Final is capped at 1,000 registrants with a 10,000 Euro + 600 Euro buy-in.

If you’ve always wanted to travel to Europe, coordinate your trip to coincide with one of the European Poker Tour events.

I was watching an online no-limit tourney the other day and watched a hand go down that reminded me why I try not to play rag hands.  I’m not perfect and sometimes I get bored and play ‘em but the majority of the time, the better hand before the flop will hold up.

So the limits are high, down to around 300 out of 2300 players.  Small blind has J4 off suit.  Before the action gets around to the small blind there is a raise, a re-raise and a call.  The small blind calls and the big blind folds.  The flop comes and sure enough there is a J and a 4 so the small blind (she is an acquaintance of mine) has two pair and bets and then two people call.

On the turn, the small blind bets, the pot is raised and called so the small blind goes all-in (only about 10% of her chips left).  Both other pots call.  I don’t remember what one person had but the other player had AJ.  The small blind is looking at a huge pot on the short stack of a big tourney.  Guess what comes on the river? 

Yes, you’ve got it – the small blind got Barry Greenstein’d – Ace on the River.

Dario Minieri, the scarf-wearing player from the 2007 WSOP Main Event, has captured his first WSOP bracelet.  As previously reported here at PokerMom.com, Minieri went into the final table of the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Six Handed event with a commanding chip lead.  Minieri outlasted 1,011 other players to take home his first WSOP bracelet as well as the $528,418 first place prize.

Another first-time bracelet winner is Sebastian Ruthenberg who bested 260 other entrants in the $5,000 buy-in World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better.  In addition to the bracelet, Ruthenberg also pockets $328,756.  This is Ruthenberg’s second cash at the 2008 WSOP.  In the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Six Handed event that Minieri won, Ruthenberg went out in 68th place earning $4,655.

Congratulations to both Minieri and Ruthenberg on their first WSOP bracelet wins!

Viewers of the 2007 WSOP Main Event will remember Dario Minieri as the young Italian player who wore a brightly-colored scarf.  Although he ultimately placed 96th in the 2007 Main Event, Minieri was a huge chip leader for a portion of the event and thus garnered a lot of media attention. 

In his third trip to the World Series of Poker, Minieri has made his first final table and he’s going into it with a commanding chip lead.  The $2,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed Event #31 final table has been set with Minieri leading the way with $1,721,000 in chips.  Other final table players are Kevin Song, Justin Filtz, John O’Shea, Seth Fischer and Stuart Marshak. 

Kevin Song, currently in second place, is the only player at this final table who has a WSOP bracelet to his name.  He took first place in the 1997 WSOP $2,000 buy-in Limit Hold’em event.  Play will resume at 2pm PDT today with the winner receiving a WSOP bracelet and a $528,418 first-place prize.

PokerStars has been running their 2008 WSOP promotion with freerolls nightly.  The first round is capped at 5,000 entrants and the top 50 places receive a ‘ticket’ to the weekly tournament.  I’ve been playing in them and have done moderately well, tonight was my best performance – I went out in 103rd place out of the 3,114 that were registered.

I mixed up my play a bit and wasn’t afraid to be when I wasn’t 100% sure I had the best hand (middle pair, good kicker, etc).  That strategy paid off several times.  As it got down to about 300 players left – the larger stacks got more aggressive and the smaller stacks tightened their play.  I was smack dab in the middle – floating just above the average stack.  I had to kind of roll with the punches and did pretty well all though my cards were just miserable.

Last hand, because there is always a last hand, I was dealt A9 of spades.  Due to all of the all-ins that had been happening I didn’t raise.  The person to my left called along with the small blind and the big blind checked.  The flop came Ad, 5d, 10h.  I bet double the big blind, the player to my left min-raised and the two blinds folded.  Due to the min raise, I decided to go all in (as calling would have left me with only ¼ of my original stack) and the player to my left called.  I figured I was up against a diamond flush draw or perhaps an A5 which left me with outs.  Oh no, I was up against A10…yeah, now the odds were really stacked against me.  I didn’t suck out and was out of the tourney.

I’ve mentioned previously that I am focusing solely on tourney play.  The Arizona State Ladies Poker Championship is scheduled for 9/13 and I want to be playing my best tournament game by the time September rolls around.  I don’t have the luxury of heading over to the casino on a whim (I am a PokerMOM, remember? Hehe) so online tourneys is where I’ll be.

Congratulations to poker pro Kenny Tran on winning the 2008 WSOP Heads-Up Championship.  Tran, who had a successful 2007 WSOP, picked up his first bracelet on Father’s Day and thanked his children for letting him play on that day.  I think the kids gave him quite a big gift.

The best two out of three final match was between Tran and 21 year old online poker player Alec Torelli.  Tran was able to win the first two games negating the need for a third game.  This win boosts Tran to #28 for the 2008 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year.  In 2007, Tran was ranked 32. 

In other event news, 2008 may just be the year of the pro with Barry Greenstein besting 452 other contestants in the $1,500 buy-in Seven Card Razz tourney.  Barry takes home $157,619 and his third WSOP bracelet. Greenstein’s previous bracelets came in the 2005 Pot-Limit Omaha event and the 2004 No-Limit Deuce to Seven Draw event.