Baseball’s world series is about to start and finally so is poker’s biggest final table.  Although the player’s have already gone through the longest part of the battle, the toughest part is still to come.
Many of the ESPN episodes of WSOP 2009 are already on YouTube and today I picked out one featuring hands of final table participants Phil Ivey, Jeff Shulman, and Darvin Moon.
Moon openly admits he’s not as good as anyone else at the table after scooping a huge pot off of Antonio Esfandiari.  He does sound like a guy who has been running great from everything you …read more

Fresh from the WSOP Main Event, Eric Lindgren has some advice for all you budding poker stars: Get as many chips as you can early in the tournament. Now that is some wisdom. Eric, you should have put that in Microsoft Word, threw in 12 of my poker blogs and published a book for $19.95. (I would have never read the book so no chance of being caught with copyright infringement.)
The clip today does have some good content though. Some of the highlights include Peter Eastgate picking off a stone cold bluff, Lindgren flopping a boat …read more

Darvin Moon has  58,930,000 chips.  Eric Buchman has 34,800,000.  The mega pro Phil Ivey only has 9,765,000.  So the question becomes what chances does the best all around poker player in the world have against a table full of  inferior players with way more chips?  Online betting site BoDog has him at 4/1.
Darvin Moon is listed at 17/10 and Eric Buchman is at 3/1 which makes Ivey’s odds all the more impressive.
The players behind Ivey are listed at pretty long odds.  Antoine Saout who is right under Ivey is at 12/1.  Last place is James Akenhead at 6m+.  He’s being put at 22/1.
Ivey …read more

Well at least the WSOP gave us a cool moniker for the final table. In exchange, we have to wait until November to see the final table play out. Seems fair enough. Fortunately, suspense remains as long as the legendary Phil Ivey remains. Ivey is still only 7th and desperately needs a double up to get out of the danger zone, but his presence at the table alone will draw a great deal of attention.
Jeff Schulman, editor of Card Player Magazine, spiced things up with some outrageous comments.  The primary message was Schulman said he would …read more

The poker world is collectively inching towards the edge of their seats. Now, one of poker’s favorite sons is now 28 players away from a WSOP Main Event bracelet. With a 2nd place chip count, Ivey isn’t just in the mix, he’s the outright favorite to win it all.
We don’t have to worry about nerves getting the best of Ivey as he’s the most fearless player in the game, but the one kryptonite could be someone (most likely an amateur) with a big stack going on a huge run ala Jerry Yang or Jaime Gold. …read more

The Main Event has shed 84 players from yesterday to leave us with 101 players. Phil Ivey is the lone mega star left and is doing well in the top 25. Another pro, Kenny Tran is hanging on but is dead last with 262,000 chips.
Peter Eastgate and Prahlad Friedman are in the 50-75 range. Dennis Phillips and Antonio Esfandiari are looking even better with both placing in the top 35.
I have a very good feeling about Ivey. He’s much different from other pros in that he doesn’t play with fear. He has ice in his …read more

We are really getting down to the wire and I’m excited to relay that not only is Phil Ivey still in the running, but several other big names are still on the list.
Here are some of the other recognizable names remaining in the WSOP Main Event:
Joe Hachem
Peter Eastgate
Prahlad Friedman
Dennis Phillips
Kenny Tran
Jordan Morgan
David Benyamine
Antonio Esfandiari
JC Tran
I am psyched to see who makes the final table. Unfortunately we won’t be able to see the conclusion until November (HATE IT!) but in the coming 1-3 days we will find out who will last to make that table which will be pretty exciting …read more

1724 remain and Phil Ivey has ascended to 6th by adding 105,000 chips to his stack for a 325,000 total. For perspective, Troy Weber is first with 453,200 and Dan Bilzerian is second with 439,500. At this point, you have to believe the Amazing Ivey has a great shot at advancing far. Ivey is scary talented and now smells the greatest title of them all – the ultimate feather in his cap.
No doubt, he has a ways to go, but with so many chips Ivey only becomes more dangerous as he has more room to operate because …read more

The big names have largely been disappointed in 2009, but not Phil Ivey.  The pro’s pro won yet another World Series of Poker bracelet, this time in the $2,500 Omaha 8-or-better/Seven-card Stud 8-or-better.  Ivey takes home $220,538 for winning it all.
Fellow big name pros Dutch Boyd and Carlos Mortenson were close, finishing third and fourth respectively.  Ming Lee netted a nice $136,292 for second place.
Ivey, whose winnings and reputation need no further bolstering, continues to add to his legendary status.  For this event, he bested 376 others.  In his other WSOP win in the Duece to Seven Lowball, Ivey was …read more

Hevad Khad will probably want this footage destroyed later. The man who made a name for himself by acting like an idiot all the way to the final table in 2007 obliged one of those fast and furious interviews and a lot of his answers were surprising. For 2009, it also looks like he’s gone a little more metro with his hair.
Next is a clip showing the final hand of Phil Ivey’s 2-7 championship. The funny part to this video is the easily frazzled table announcer who doesn’t realize Ivey’s opponent is drawing dead until he alerts …read more