Last year Peter Eastgate and Dennis Phillips were a couple of nobodies that finished 1st and 3rd in the Main Event. After this year, should they ask to be put in the circle of best tournament pros, you couldn’t deny them. Incredibly both found themselves lasting well into the top 100. Eastgate finished 78 and Phillips was bad beat at number 45. While Eastgate has looked foolish in some of the High Stakes cash games, he has cemented a tremendous back to back run at only 23 years old.
In honor of both chaulking up back to …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

Have you ever had that dream where you miss half a semester of school before you realize your enrolled in a class? You start panicking and then try to attend your first class of the semester after 15 classes have already passed. It’s a horrible feeling and it looks like several last minute poker players are experiencing something similar.
Hundreds of players missed out on Day 1d, the last day for sign up on the WSOP.  A last minute meeting was put together to see if there was another way, but officials deemed there was not enough available space to …read more

From sports stars to tv sit-com celebs, we’ve seen them all make appearances at the WSOP. Some are even regulars. The WSOP list has included Brad Garrett, Jason Alexander, Ray Ramon, Nelly, Jose Canseo, Lennox Lewis, Toby Maguire, Shannon Elizabeth, Sully Erna, Bobby Bonilla, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck.
This year both Brad Garret and Jason Alexander have admitted they don’t have a shot. History doesn’t bode well for celebs either as none have gone very deep.
While some are undoubtedly poker fans and know the game, it’s highly unlikely a celeb ever makes significant noise. …read more

It’s become a tradition for Phil Hellmuth to make a late but attention grabbing entrance to the WSOP. That tradition is alive and well. Check out the video below. Hellmuth, who is now the ambassador of poker, made his entrance to the WSOP Main Event day 1c as Julius Caesar. He was carried to the door by four men while awkwardly laying on his side. Then entered the casino flanked by painted women throwing flower pedals on him.
I would call it a grand entrance but it looked more awkward than it did spectacular. I’m …read more

Independence Day wasn’t a great one for the WSOP as Main Event attendance dropped to 873 registers for day 1b from 1,116 on day 1a.  This is also down from recent years of Main Event play.  After 1a, Redmond Lee was the cheap leader with nearly 135,000 chips and interestingly Jason Alexander (aka George Castanza) actually ended up 6th.
Alexander also had his voice off the felt, offering a great soundbyte to ESPN360.com on the November final table.  “It’s becoming something the game is not meant to be.”  In stark contrast, Mike Sexton suggested just to go with the flow and …read more

ESPN doesn’t usually put their name on YouTube videos, but it looks like times are changing.  This week ESPN submitted WSOP Unforgettable Confrontations as the 2009 WSOP winds down to the Main Event.  I can’t embed the video because they disabled the code, but here is the link.
It’s a pretty entertaining video.  Featured is the always memorable Sheik vs. Matusow match where Sheik makes an inappropriate gesture after the flop comes out (indicating he had a piece of the flop).  Mike tells him he needs to “shut the **** up” and both get sent to the rail for 10 minutes.  …read more

The WSOP H.O.R.S.E. Event is down to 31 and last year’s winner, Scotty Nguyen, is right in the thick of things, maintaining a healthy middle of the pack stack.  Other notable pros left include Gus Hansen, Todd Brunson, Freddy Deeb, Tony G., Patrik Antonius, Erik Seidel, and Huck Seed.  It would be awesome to see Scotty take down back-to-back H.O.R.S.E championships.
In other news, the never happy Brandon Cantu beat fellow pro Lee Watkinson to win the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi Lo 8-or-Better bracelet.  Cantu’s win was anything but certain when heads-up play began with Watkinson holding a 2,485,000 to …read more

The World Series of Poker H.O.R.S.E. Event (Hold’em – Omaha – Razz – Seven Card Stud – Eight or better) kicked off today with a paltry 95 entries, less than 2/3s the number of entries in 2008 (148).  HORSE is a popular game among poker players because they it showcases a lot of all around talent as the players must continually adapt to a merry-go-round of poker games.  The WSOP HORSE event is prestigious but it is also super expensive.  An entry onto the felt costs $50,000.  (Of course the winnings balloon as a result, even with only 50 entries, …read more

Derek Raymond is your Omaha 8-or-better winner.  The event was a $2,500 buy-in resulting in $229,192 in prize winnings.  Mark Tenner finished second.
John Kabbaj won the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em World Championship in a field of 275 for a $633,335 payday.
Elder statesmen Michael Davis was also a bracelet winner, taking the $1,000 Seniors World Championship for $437,358.
As the WSOP winds down, heads will now tun to the $50,000 Horse event which Scotty Nguyen embarrassingly but entertainingly won last year.
Here is the video of shame for Scotty’s legacy. He has since apologized and acknowledged that he drank too …read more