Poker Mom

I just finished watching the ESPN televised version of the 2008 WSOP $50k HORSE tournament and have to say that Scotty Nguyen’s behavior was despicable.  Scotty Nguyen is known as the Prince of Poker and is usually a pretty easy-going guy (at least on the televised games I’ve seen).  In the 2007 WSOP Main Event he was sitting pretty on the chip stack going into the two final tables and then fell from grace going out in 11th place.  He handled that much more graciously than he handled himself in this year’s HORSE tournament.

The HORSE tourney has been named after Chip Reese who won the inaugural event in 2006.  Chip Reese was a true poker ambassador and Doyle Brunson commented that he doesn’t recall ever hearing Reese raise his voice.  To see the bickering and one-upmanship that occurred during the 2008 HORSE tourney is really not keeping with Reese’s legacy.

I don’t recall a time where I’ve ever heard so many bleeps due to cursing.  Even when Phil Hellmuth has a blow-up after a bad beat, bad call or whatever gets his goat – the censor doesn’t have to go as crazy as he did during the two hours of the $50k HORSE event final table that was televised.  Early on in the airing, he slow rolled trip 7s against Barry Greenstein.  Totally uncalled for Scotty!

Whether Nguyen was complaining about a delay in getting his beer or being upset about a call another player made, he just got worse as the show went on.  I know that he ended up winning but I was rather disappointed.  Even Michael DeMichele, who started off the evening fist pumping his victories, acted better at the end.

I can’t image Nguyen looking back on this win and being proud of his self.  If he is then I say that he needs to be dethroned of his Prince of Poker title because during that final table he was definitely not a Prince – more like the court jester.

 Although the 2008 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. tournament is over, ESPN will be airing certain hands from the final table this coming Tuesday, August 19.  For those that don’t want to wait until Tuesday to see how the final table played out, I’ve got the information you want.

The $50,000 buy-in tournament has been named after Chip Reese who many have stated was the best poker player.  Unfortunately Reese is no longer with us but his legacy lives on in the WSOP H.O.R.S.E. tournament.   There were 148 entrants which brought the prize pool up to a whopping $7.1 million with nearly $2 million going to the first place winner.

The top 16 places were paid with Doyle Brunson squeaking in to the payouts and going out in 16th.  Andy Bloch went out in 15th, Daniel Negreanu in 13th, and Phil Ivey in 12th.  The final table was a veritable who’s who of poker and here are the results:

1. Scotty Nguyen $1,989,120
2. Mike DeMichele $1,243,200
3. Erick Lindgren $781,440
4. Matt Glantz $568,320
5. Lyle Berman $444,000
6. Barry Greenstein $335,200
7. Huck Seed $284,160
8. Patrick Bueno $230,880
9. Ralph Perry $177,600

Eva Longoria Parker, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Phil Hellmuth, Amaury Nolasco, Sean Elliott, Leeann Tweeden and other celebrities will be in attendance at the first annual Tony & Eva Parker Celebrity Casino Night.  The event will benefit the Eva’s Heroes foundation which works with individuals with developmental challenges.

The event will be held at Pedrotti’s North Wind Ranch in San Antonio, Texas.  Dinner will be served at 6:00pm with the poker tournament starting at 6:30pm.  Although the event is sold out, tickets to enter the poker tournament were only $300 per person.

In addition to the celebrities that planned to attend this event, the charity night is being sponsored by ultimatebet.com, H.E.B., the San Antonio Spurs and several other corporate sponsors.  This isn’t just your typical charity poker tournament though.  The winner of the event will receive a seat in the 2009 World Series of Poker.  It doesn’t say if this is a seat in the $10,000 buy-in Main Event but regardless, the winner is likely there for the altruistic factor and not to gain entry to the WSOP.

Good luck to all!

Tonight’s WSOP event on ESPN is event number four, the $5,000 Mixed Hold’em tournament.  With a total of 332 entrants, the final nine sat down early in June and Erick Lindgren was the last man standing winning his first ever WSOP bracelet.The final table was a who’s who of poker pros – in addition to Lindgren, Justin Bonomo, Andrew Robl, Roland De Wolf, David (Chino) Rheem, Howard Lederer, David Williams, Pat Pezzin and Isaac Haxton were featured at the final table.

Haxton was the first player out taking home a smooth $35k, not bad for a $5k investment.  Although we know that Lindgren was in it for the bracelet, he also collected nearly $375k for his first-place finish.  Lindgren now joins the ranks of bracelet winners.  Lindgren had a fantastic series and ended up as the 2008 World Series of Poker Player of the Year with five cashes and a total of 245 POY points.  He walked away from this year’s WSOP with over $1.3 million in cash!

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!).

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.

As the players take their day six dinner break, Tiffany Michelle finds herself as the lone female in the bunch.  She’s sitting pretty on a stack of over $6.7 million in chips which puts her in sixth place out of the remaining 35 players.  Yeehaw Tiffany!  This year may or may not be the year of the pro but could it be the Year of the Woman?  That would be awesome!

When asked about being the last woman standing, Michelle said ““I think it’s really to be the last woman standing. I think it’s a great accomplishment, I know there’s a lot of good that can come from that.” Michelle also hopes that her age helps bring more women to the tables in the future.”  (Quote courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com)

Mike Matusow is still in the tourney sitting in the middle of the pack with a tad over $3.5 million in chips.  His buddy, Phil Hellmuth, was felted earlier today and took home a $154,400 prize for his 45th place finish.  Hellmuth was the last previous Main Event winner standing in the tournament this year – a far cry from his 2007 WSOP Main Event performance.

Day six of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event will begin in about 30 minutes.  Some players may be snoozing and others may be packing in a high-energy lunch but Mark Ketteringham is the one sitting pretty at the top of the leader board.  Ketteringham will start day six as the chip leader with a whopping $5.8 million in chips with only 79 players remaining.

Second place Andrew Brokos holds $4.08 million in chips and third place Nikolay Losey is sitting on a chip stack of $4.058 million.  The rest of the players all have less than $4 million in chips.  Notable players left on day six include David Rheem, Kido Pham, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and Phil Hellmuth.  Hellmuth is near the bottom of the leader board with just over $700k in chips.  However, according to the old saying you just need a chip and a chair.

The remaining 79 players are vying for the $9.1 million first prize.  However, the first person to go out today will still receive a hefty return on their $10k investment - $77,200.  For those looking to be a WSOP millionaire in one event, they’ll have to hold on until the final table and then make it to 8th place which will pay out nearly $1.3 million.

Good luck to the 2008 WSOP Main Event players as play ramps up on day six!