Poker Mom

The World Poker Tour has its WPT Boot Camps.  The World Series of Poker has the WSOP Academy.  Both of these offerings allow poker players to fine tune their game under the tutelage of some well-known poker players.

WSOP Academy Instructors and Faculty
The following big names of poker are part of the WSOP Academy instructor and faculty list:  Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon, Andy Bloch, Brad “Yukon” Booth, Annie Duke, Scott Fischman, Joe Hachem, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Joe Navarro (retired FBI), Alex Outhred, Greg Raymer, Mark Seif, Paul Wasicka, Kenny Tran and Oliver “Ali” Nejad.

Upcoming WSOP Academy Events
There are currently two World Series of Poker Academy events planned.  The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California will be hosting a WSOP Academy on September 6 and 7, 2008.  Instructors for the Bicycle event will be Annie Duke, Joe Navarro, Alex Outhred, Kenny Tran and Ali Nejad.

ESPN is teaming up with the WSOP Academy to host the ESPN Golf Schools & World Series of Poker Academy from October 30-November 2, 2008.  The event will be held at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.  Instructors slated to attend are Greg Raymer, Joe Navarro and Alex Outhred.  In addition to the poker academy, attendees will also receive a $400 gift card from Callaway Golf, a swing analysis and cocktail party.  The event costs a mere $2999.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe registration is now open.  The WSOPE will begin on Friday, September 19, 2008 at the London Clubs International in the United Kingdom.  The first event will be a 4-day No-Limit Hold’em event.  The other three events held during the WSOPE are a H.O.R.S.E tournament, a Pot Limit Omaha game and the WSOP Europe Main Event No-Limit Texas Hold’em tournament.

Annette Obrestad was the last person (and just so happened to be a woman) standing at the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event; she pocketed nearly $2 million US.    For those looking for a British poker getaway, the WSOP Europe has secured preferred hotel rates at certain London establishments.  The Dorchester must be booked by 8/15/2008 and the discount code is IMG260908.  The Cavendish will allow reservations under the preferred rate to be made until 8/28/2008 using the code WSOP.  The Intercontinental is holding preferred rates until 8/18/2008 and attendees must use the code World Series of Poker.

If any PokerMom readers are planning to attend the WSOP Europe, I’d love to hear from you.  Drop me a comment and let me know.

Full Tilt Poker is one of the internet’s most popular poker sites.  The Full Tilt Poker team consists of such big name poker pros like Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Gas Hansen, the hotty Patrik Antonius and more. 

One of the draws of online poker is the nonstop promotions.  Full Tilt Poker is still running the Big Money Sundays promotion which guarantees that over $1 million will be up for grabs spread across The Sunday Brawl, The $750k Guarantee and The Sunday Mulligan.  Satellite qualifiers for these tournaments start at a mere $2 + $0.25.

Players can earn up to triple their Full Tilt Points by playing during the Full Tilt Poker Happy Hour.  Simply look for tables that have a smiley face in the “Players” column.  For those who are looking for a bit more excitement, participate in the Full Tilt Poker European Series 2008 events.  The World Series of Poker Europe event begins on September 19, 2008 and will be running qualifiers for a $25,000 European Series prize package.

These are just a small sampling of the current promotional offers available to Full Tilt Poker players.  Don’t forget that if you are new to Full Tilt, you can receive a 100% deposit bonus for your initial deposit (up to $600). 

The World Series of Poker is over which means it is time for PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) to begin.  The 2008 WCOOP will have a $30 million guaranteed prize pool.  Yes, you saw that right - $30 MILLION.  This is one of the internet’s largest online tournaments and was started in 2002.  In 2007, player ka$ino won almost $1.4 million in the WCOOP.  All this can be had from the comfort of your own home and in your pajamas if you’d like.

The 2008 WCOOP officially starts on September 5 at 14:30 Eastern with a $215 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em six-person max event with a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million.  The WCOOP continues through September 21 where the $5,200 buy-in No-Limit Hold’Em Main Event starts with a guaranteed prize pool of $10 million.  The WCOOP Main Event is a two-day event.

If you don’t have $5,200 for the Main Event or even $215 for one of the other WCOOP events, don’t despair – satellite and step tournaments are there to help you get your entry for pennies on the dollar.  Cash qualifiers start at $2.20 and FPP Satellites start at 100 Frequent Player Points.  In addition, step satellites are available with the winner of each step gaining entry to a 9-person sit and go of the next step.

I’ve already started my satellite journey – hope to see you on the virtual felt!

Phil Hellmuth is one of the most prolific Hold’em tournament players currently alive.  He has a record 11 World Series of Poker bracelets to his name.  He has also appeared on popular televised poker shows including the World Poker Tour, High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark.  This past week he was a participant in the Poker After Dark cash game and had several Hellmuth moments where he’d complain about a slow roll, a donkey call and complaints about suck outs.In the past, watching Phil Hellmuth blow up really drove me crazy – to the point where I refused to watch games in which he played.  In time though, I’ve managed to tolerate and even get a little bit of amusement out of it.  Sure he has a bit of an ego but if you really watch, most of the times he apologizes or makes amends after blowing up.  Stories have also been told about how genuine and nice of a person he is off of the felt.

So today in browsing the poker blogs I ran across this excerpted entry from Pokahboy at the Road to the final table blog:

“I don’t think I’m alone in expressing a new level of dislike for Phil Hellmuth. His voice must take up 40-50% of the airtime, it’s particularly annoying. It’s as though he feels it’s his divine right to win in every game he plays. His record in cash games isn’t great, so suck up and quit with the whining.”

The post reminded me of my initial thoughts about Hellmuth.  Perhaps in time he’ll grow on those who are utterly annoyed with him or perhaps I’ve mellowed out in my old age (har har!).

High Stakes Poker is my favorite televised poker show and I was a bit saddened by the news earlier this summer that there was no definitive answer as to whether the show would return.  Imagine my delight when I saw that Poker News Daily is reporting that season five of High Stakes Poker will be returning to the Game Show Network (GSN)!

According to the Poker News Daily article, “No official date for the beginning of Season V has been given, nor has there been any indication of whether additional episodes will be filmed or whether Season V will consist of additional unaired portions of Season IV.”

Rumors about the lack of an immediate renewal for the High Stakes Poker series centered on the new leader of GSN’s desire to step away from so many poker shows.  I was a bit bummed and predictions were made that televised poker was on the decline.  I loved the fact that High Stakes Poker was a cash game as opposed to the traditional tournament format of televised poker.  I love the cash game and as such rather enjoyed this week’s Poker After Dark “The Cash Game”.

This week marked the return of Poker After Dark to the NBC lineup.  Although the majority of this season of Poker After Dark will feature the typical six-player tournament lineup, the inaugural week is being played in a cash game format.  With a $100 per person ante and blinds set at $200/$400, six players bought in for a minimum of $100,000.

Fans of NBC’s Heads-up Poker Championship were looking forward to the clash between Tom Dwan (who has a striking resemblance to Eddie Munster) and Phil Hellmuth and as of yet, the words between the two have been pretty benign.  In a loving move, the two even shared sushi.  Yes, that’s right; Hellmuth and Dwan shared a plate of sushi. 

In the Friday morning episode, Hellmuth felted David “Viffer” Peat when he flopped a set of fours to Viffer’s pair of Queens with an Ace-kicker.  At this point, Hellmuth had already been felted once so it was definitely a boost to his ego.  Not that Hellmuth needs a boost, but his spirit quickly turned jovial after the $230k+ pot.

Viffer bought back in for $160k (or thereabouts) and a few hands later woke up with pocket aces.  He put in a modest raise and the table folded around to Allen Cunningham who had pocket Kings.  Talk about a cold deck!  A few raises later, Viffer was all-in and Cunningham quickly called.  Viffer offered to run it twice so two full boards later, Viffer took down the more than $300k pot as Cunningham could not catch a King.

The play isn’t over but it is nice to watch a cash game again.  Sure, I love the tourney format but in the absence of my ultimate favorite – High Stakes Poker – I love to see the cash game.  This is a typical high-stakes cash game with straddles, double straddles, insurance and even the seven-deuce bounty.  Rumors are abound that season five of High Stakes Poker is in the works but nothing concrete has been announced.

Even though the WSOP is on hold until the final nine meet in November, ESPN is not done with the 2008 World Series of Poker.  For those that didn’t catch the action on ESPN360.com, ESPN will be playing edited versions of certain tournaments beginning next Tuesday, July 22, 2008.  Here is the official ESPN 2008 World Series of Poker Television Schedule.

July 22 8-10 p.m. ET $10,000 Pot-limit Hold’em World Championship
July 29 8-10 p.m. ET $1,500 No-limit Hold’em
Aug. 5 8-10 p.m. ET $1,500 Pot-limit Hold’em/$5,000 Mixed Hold’em
Aug. 12 8-10 p.m. ET $1,000 No-limit Hold’em with rebuys
Aug. 19 8-10 p.m. ET $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship
Aug. 26 8-10 p.m. ET $10,000 Pot-limit Omaha World Championship
Sept. 2 8-10 p.m. ET $10,000 No-limit Hold’em Main Event
Sept. 9 9-11 p.m. ET $10,000 No-limit Hold’em Main Event
Sept. 16 9-11 p.m. ET $10,000 No-limit Hold’em Main Event
Sept. 23 9-11 p.m. ET $10,000 No-limit Hold’em Main Event
Sept. 30 9-11 p.m. ET $10,000 No-limit Hold’em Main Event
Oct. 7 9-11 p.m. ET $10,000 No-limit Hold’em Main Event
Oct. 14 9-11 p.m. ET $10,000 No-limit Hold’em Main Event
Oct. 21 9-11 p.m. ET $10,000 No-limit Hold’em Main Event
Oct. 28 9-11 p.m. ET $10,000 No-limit Hold’em Main Event
Nov. 4 8-10 p.m. ET Main Event Final-Table preview show
Nov. 11 9-11 p.m. ET $10,000 No-limit Hold’em Main Event Final Table

Rest assured that my DVR will be scheduled to record all of these.  I didn’t watch a single minute of ESPN360.com (no time with the kiddos) and although I’ve been blogging about the tournament since it started in May, I am still excited to watch the games.

The nine players who persevered and made it to the final table of the 2008 WSOP Main Event are on break until November.  As mentioned previously here on PokerMom, the Main Event final table will be held in November giving the players time to hone their skills or read up on their opponents.

Congratulations to the following nine players on making it to the final table listed with their chip counts and final table seat assignment.
Seat 1: Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000
Seat 2: Craig Marquis - 10,210,000
Seat 3: Ylon Schwartz - 12,525,000
Seat 4: Scott Montgomery - 19,690,000
Seat 5: Darus Suharto - 12,520,000
Seat 6: Chino Rheem - 10,230,000
Seat 7: Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000
Seat 8: Kelly Kim - 2,620,000
Seat 9: Peter Eastgate - 18,375,000

Not only have none of these nine players won the WSOP Main Event before, none of them even have a WSOP bracelet.  Not that it is an easy feat to win a bracelet but the final table players hold a total of zero bracelets between the nine of them.  What a reward for the player that wins; his first bracelet is the granddaddy of WSOP bracelets.  Oh yeah, and a cool $9 million.

The PokerMom 2008 WSOP Updates are finished but PokerMom isn’t going anywhere.  Stay tuned for more fun poker stories, poker gossip and recaps from your favorite shows like Poker After Dark!

Day seven of the 2008 WSOP Main Event finds the field narrowed to 27 players.  Tiffany Michelle, the last woman standing, is in third chip position with just over $9.7 million in chips.  Dennis Phillips is in first place with $11.9 million and Craig Marquis is holding on to second with a comfortable $11.4 million in chips.

Phillips, who has previously made final tables in the 2007/2008 WSOP Grand Casino Tunica Circuit Event, is making his first ever cash at the WSOP.  Second-place player Marquis cashed earlier in this year’s WSOP in a $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Shootout in which he placed 18th.  Tiffany “Hot Chips” Michelle has never placed in a WSOP or Circuit event but this gal is poised to make it to the final table this year.

In other news, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow didn’t make it past day six going out in 30th place and winning $193,000.  Matusow had an AJ and Paul Snead held A9.  The flop was AA5 giving Matusow the higher hand but the turn showed a 5 which gave Snead a full house.  Matusow wasn’t able to better his hand on the river and was felted.