STHollywood’s Blog

So you’re watching a poker tournament on television and there are five minutes left. Say Phil Ivey has a 9 to 1 chip lead over Phil Hellmuth. Who do you think is going to win? World Poker Tour founder Steve Lipscomb realized a flaw in the presentation of his poker tournaments to date. In almost every situation with ten minutes left there is no drama; the tournament is essentially over. That is why Lipscomb and the World Poker Tour fans are excited about the tour’s new affiliation with Fox Sports Network, or FSN as it is commonly known.

“We’ve been a two-hour format, in which you pretty much know when it’s coming to an end,” Lipscomb said in an interview at the Bellagio. “So that was one of the things we struggled with and tried to tell that story the best way we could. With the one-hour shows, in the middle of a heads-up match, it may look like it’s over but there’s a great comeback on the way. You won’t know in the last 10 minutes what’s going to happen.

The World Poker Tour and FSN have teamed up for the tour’s seventh season, which began with the Bellagio Cup IV last week. The partnership follows five years with the Travel Channel and one year with the Games Network, or GSN, the former home of
“High-Stakes”. “I feel like a man who’s been in the desert waiting for a cold glass of water for a long time,” Lipscomb said. “I would never take anything away from the other partners that we’ve had, because they’ve been very important for the World Poker Tour and for poker to be able to be where it is. I think everyone who cares about poker, everyone who wants it to take its rightful place, I believe, among the long-term sports leagues of the world, should be applauding and cheering this move, that there is a vision on the broadcast side of it with FSN that understands what poker can and should be. This is an opportunity to show what it can really do.”

Fox Sports seems the perfect place to host the World Poker Tour because of their innovative style. FSN’s VP George Greenberg says they will take new risks in their production of the shows. “…sometimes you make mistakes. Look, was the glowing puck the greatest invention? Well, from that glowing puck actually came the first-down marker. We’ll continue to take chances, and I promise you, we’re going to activate this show.”

Fox Sports has already shown such innovations as the heart monitor in the Poker Dome Challenge. They are certainly not adverse to risk-taking. “Take a look at our poker programming and what we’ve done with it,” Greenberg said. “We’ve shown live poker, which people thought was insanity. But to us, it’s a sporting event and a challenge. With the World Poker Tour, there are so many ways to go with this using the technology of Fox Sports. If there’s a chance to do something, we’ll take the chance.”

Today so many people are getting involved in the poker world and they are interested in the ins and outs. Fox Sports hopes to utilize this interest to change the way poker is broadcast, focusing less on the “coin-flip” aspects and more on strategy. “Because of the nature of the audience at FSN as well as the edginess of the network, I believe we have the freedom to express some of the more interesting, gritty and sexy sides of poker,” Lipscomb said. “What we can do together is help the perception of poker as a sport, to completely legitimize it. It will look more and more like a sport, and that’s a great thing.”

Fox Sports is taking poker in the direction for which many are fighting. In the days of the depression, gamblers were bums. But, now the world is changing and professional poker is attempting to establish itself as a sport, letting everyone know this is a game of skill and its players are worthy of praise. The World Poker Tour is at the front lines with Fox Sports leading the charge.

An issue that has recently arisen in the poker world is the rules that govern tournament play. Unlike the the PGA Tour, where golfers can expect the same procedures to take place at every tournament, poker has a different system going, and most complain it is a lack of one. According to Miguel Strother at PokerListings, due to Poker’s semi-illicit status in the past and present, odd changes in the unset rules have taken place over time and created inhomogeneity in poker.

Many professionals have complained of tournament poker’s lack of a good system, but finally someone is doing something about it. Professional poker players Marcel Luske and Michelle Lau founded an organization called the Fédération Internationale de Poker Association (FIDPA) to promote poker as a sport and force unity world-wide within that sport. Their creation, the “International Poker Rules” or “IP Rules” are set to be endorsed by many international poker players and officials later this month when they are unveiled. “As poker has exploded, the beauty of having one set of rules that everyone can learn and follow is such a big step for the game and as a sport,” Luske said. “New players and professional players finally have a resource from which to learn and play. Poker is a game that requires skill and knowledge and should be played with fairness and integrity.”

To create these rules, Luske and Lau have collaborated with some influential figures in the poker world. Notable proponents of the IP Rules include Bob Ciaffone of the Poker Tournament Directors Asssociation and Jack McClelland and Doug Dalton of the Bellagio. “With the support of Doug Dalton and Jack McClelland at Bellagio, one of the world’s finest card rooms, FIDPA and the IP Rules are off to a great start,” said Lau. “We still have a lot of ground to cover but the fact of the matter is that there really is no reason why a card room or tournament should not use the IP Rules as a base.”

Luske speculates that the rules will be beneficial to tournament directors around the world. “We have a large number of international poker players who compete in our tournaments on a regular basis,” said McClelland, who is the director of tournaments at the Bellagio. He continued, “We want to make sure they are comfortable with the rules and hope to maintain consistency in rulings worldwide. Bellagio is happy to support both domestic and international tournament efforts which in turn will strengthen our position as the leader in the industry. We look forward to a successful partnership with FIDPA.”

As for the IP Rules themselves, according to PokerListings they consist of 80 technical rules, policies, and procedures for tournament play that reference the latest version of the Tournament Directors Association’s “40 Rules”. According to PokerListings, “Cardrooms and tournament organizing bodies are permitted to modify the rules in accordance with house rules, state and federal gaming commission laws and regulations and/or tournament directors’ procedures and policies. All modifications made to the IP Rules will be provided to the players and will take precedence in that venue.”

Lau says about the new rules, “By allowing tournament directors to make and disclose any necessary modifications prior to a tournament, we can now know the rules, simply note the changes and be able to ensure the rulings are made are fairly. A standardized set of rules [is] desperately needed; as a professional poker player traveling around the world to play in tournaments, there is absolutely no way to know the different rules in every country or even from venue to venue.”

Given the amount agreement among professional that these rules are needed, and the large quantity of people gravitating towards poker, it seems the Fédération Internationale de Poker Association is a timely and necessary addition to the beloved game. It brings more legitimacy to poker in a time of legal gray area for online professionals and will surely solidify poker’s place as a respectable profession and sport.

Finally, nine people remain after a grueling 12 day battle in the 2008 Main Event where 6,844 began with hopes of joining the ranks of some of poker’s best as world champion. The problem is that these golden nine will have to wait until November 9th to finish their journeys due to the fact that this year the final table of the Main Event will be played live for the first time.

As we all know, finishing 10th in a poker tournament is not quite the glamorous place, but one isn’t really in a position to complain. Dean Hamrick had such a role this year, after over eleven hours of play on the day Hamrick moved all-in for 3,420,000 chips and Craig Marquis shoved over him. The action was folded around the rest of the table and Marquis revealed QQ to Hamrick’s AJ.The flop was K-10-3 rainbow giving Hamrick an inside straight draw. The turn was a 10 which was no help. And the river fell a K as the crowd was yelling various cards. Obviously, this was no help to Hamrick either as he was sent home in 10th, but not before taking home a healthy payday of $591,869. “It’s the worst you’re ever going to feel to win half a million bucks,” Hamrick said. “I guess at least it’s a good story.”

That hand left “The November Nine” who will vie for glory in four months. “Now, I have nothing to lose,” said Kelly Kim, a 31-year-old professional poker player from Whittier, California. He was still happy although he finished as the final table short stack.

No matter what the result, this year’s final table will be enjoyable to watch live for all poker buffs out there. Chip leader Dennis Phillips sums it up nicely in stating, “I love this game.”

The complete final table participants and chip stacks are:
Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000
Craig Marquis - 10,210,000
Ylon Schwartz - 12,525,000
Scott Montgomery - 19,690,000
Darus Suharto - 12,520,000
David ‘Chino’ Rheem - 10,230,000
Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000
Kelly Kim - 2,620,000
Peter Eastgate - 18,375,000

The battle between McCain and Obama for the title of 44th President of the United States is in full swing, and poker players and non-poker players alike are trying to decide which of the candidates is best. Oddly enough, this election will most likely be more influenced by poker than any other in the history of our nation. We have seen the poker playing community heavily affected by the last term of George W. Bush when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed in 2006, making online gambling difficult in the United States. Now, concurrent with this election, poker players are trying to repeal the poker ban and we want to know who of Obama or McCain is more likely to do so. But, according to the United Kingdom Telegraph, both candidates are avid gamblers, which we have not seen since the days of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

Earlier in the election period, it was revealed that Obama is a poker player. He considers it a hidden talent and himself a skilled Texas Hold’Em and Seven Card Stud player. Back in his days as an Illinois State Senator, Obama developed a reputation of playing to win, usually with good cards and rarely bluffing. On the other hand, The Telegraph states McCain loves few things more than a 14 hour session at the craps table. McCain enjoys the thrill and camaraderie of a dice game and is known to wager thousands of dollars per game.

Interestingly, long time Republican and world-famous poker player Doyle Brunson has stated that he will support Barack Obama this election. He said that he could not support John McCain because Republicans support the gambling ban. “Poker players have to support Obama,” he said. “God help the internet gambling business if McCain does happen to win.” Furthermore, professional poker player and former MIT Blackjack Team member Andy Bloch has shown his support for Obama and told the Sunday Telegraph that most players in the World Series of Poker are Obama supporters. Also, a group called “Poker Players for Obama” writes a blog on his campaign website.

Aside from the gambling ban, there has been speculation as to how Obama and McCain’s gambling habits will affect there presidential policies. Andy Bloch says, “There are a lot of skills playing poker that would help the chief executive. In poker you have to put yourself in the shoes of your opponents, get inside their heads and figure out what they’re thinking; what their actions mean; what they would think your actions mean; and reading people’s bluffs. One thing that got us into the Iraq War was that George Bush didn’t realize that Saddam Hussein was basically bluffing, trying to look like a big man, when he really had no weapons of mass destruction.” Anthony Holden, a British poker player and writer, added, “Eisenhower was a good player who did not like winning money from fellow officers, let alone other ranks, and he was a nice guy. Nixon had no such scruples at all and funded his first political campaign from his wartime winnings. He turned out to be just as unprincipled in power. Barack Obama, like Lyndon Johnson, used poker to make political connections. He seems not to be much of a bluffer. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a giant bluff by JFK, which was not called by Khruschev. I don’t think we’ll get those kind of geopolitical gambles from Obama.”

Both Bloch and Holden are concerned about having a President who avidly plays a game that has a negative expected value, like craps (for non-poker players expected value is the amount one is expected to win in the long term). “You’re always at a disadvantage at craps,” said Bloch. “It’s a problem, if you have a leader who believes they can beat the odds. You don’t want him shooting dice with the economy.” Holden added, “We poker players don’t call poker gambling. It is a game of skill. Craps is an absurd game of luck. You may have thrilling short term wins but only madmen play craps.”

So when it is all said and done, it seems the poker community mostly supports Obama. Although, it is unclear whether someone who never bluffs has the chops to make it as President either. As we have seen in the past with JFK, and as all poker players know, a player who never bluffs will not be playing as well as he/she could be. But, playing a losing game is certainly not better. With the Presidency, only time will tell. But, Terry Link, a fellow State Senator of Obama, told Time magazine, “If he runs his presidency the way he plays poker, I’ll sleep good at night.”

So, the Day 1’s are over. Now it’s break day before Day 2A begins. Of course, I am talking about the World Series of Poker’s 2008 Main Event. There was much speculation as to whether this year’s Main Event would have more entrants than last year’s, and in the end it did. This year the Main Event took on 6,844 participants, nearly 500 more players than last year but still very shy of the 2006 record of 8,773 when Jamie Gold took home 12 million dollars for the record first prize in poker history. This year the prize pool totals 64.3 million dollars for a top prize of 9.12 million, the second largest first prize in Main Event history.

Top notables left in the event include Victor Ramdin with 124,600 chips, David Oppenhiem with 114,400, Carlos Mortensen with 109,825, Gus Hansen with 102,900, Aaron Kanter has 99,700, Nikolav Evdakov has 93,850, Antonio Esfandiari with 93,775, Thomas Keller with 80,175, Phil Hellmuth with 78,900, and finally Johnny Chan has 77,500 chips.

Notable people busted out include mixed martial art fighter Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, Phil Ivey, David Williams, Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, and Jennifer Tilly.

Probably the oddest attempt at Main Event glory, or actually at avoiding it, was Phil Laak’s disguise. According to the International Herald Tribune, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak tried to keep opponents from recognizing him by having a makeup artist give him a fake mustache and don him in a latex mask with face paint, a far cry from his usual hoody and sunglasses. “On a scale of one to 10 I thought it was going to look like a nine and a half. It’s like an eight. But if they see something’s funny they don’t know it’s me, so it’s huge,” Laak said of his apparently functional disguise.

On July 8th and 9th Day 2A and B will take place followed by Day 3, where everyone left in the tournament will play together for the first time on July 10th. Look for further updates on FTR to come.

Today marks day one of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.  For many professionals and amateurs alike the Main Event is a chance for poker glory and immortality.  Although, the Main Event is certainly enough excitement for a day in the poker community, there is another gripping and unusual poker competition beginning today; “Man versus Machine II”.

One year ago, on July 23-24th, a Texas Hold’Em playing program called Polaris was set against poker professionals Phil Laak and Ali Eslami in what was called “Man versus Machine”.  The match took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver, Canada.  It consisted of four duplicate matches in which 500 hands were played per match.  To reduce variance, the program was set up so that Polaris would receive the same cards as the human that it was not playing.  So, Polaris against Phil would get the same cards that Ali was getting against Polaris and they were placed in different rooms to eliminate cheating.  In the end, after 16 hours of play over two days, Phil and Ali had won two matches, drew one, and lost one.

According to Wikipedia Polaris was developed by a computer poker research group at University of Alberta, Canada which is one of the foremost artificial intelligence studying agencies in the world.  The research group working on Polaris consists of 15 researchers, graduate, and undergraduate students whose main focus is artificial intelligence. Polaris, which had been in production for 16 years before 2007, contains a number of fixed strategies but also an adaptive component which attempts to model the play of the opponent and adapt accordingly.  “It’s possible, given enough computing power, for computers to play ‘perfectly,’ where over a long enough match, the program cannot lose money,” said associate professor Michael Bowling, leader of the university’s computer poker research group. “Humans will always make some mistakes, meaning the program will have an advantage.”  Polaris will rely on this “perfect” play in its match beginning today.

Starting today and ending July 6th the Polaris system will be pitted in against six new opponents in a limit cash game.  The opponents include Nick Grudzien, IJay Palansky, and Matt Harilenko who have each won more than one million dollars in online cash games. The match will take place alongside the World Series in the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino as part of the 2008 Gaming Life Expo.

Although this match certainly has entertainment value, Bowling contends this game is an academic pursuit.  Bowling states, “Games are an excellent domain for artificial intelligence research because games have well defined rules and clear goals. The techniques that are learned from succeeding at games can be applied to real-world problems where the ‘rules’ are not so well defined.”  It will be interesting to see if Polaris’s improvements have made it capable of beating human professionals.  Although it starts the same day as the Main Event, Man versus Machine II will be over four months sooner.  The outcome of this match will display the progress of artificial intelligence and the prowess of professional poker players at the same time, providing excitement and potentially powerful real world applications all in one.

Event 46 of this years World Series of Poker was the largest buy-in 6-max No Limit Hold’Em tournament of the series. The $5,000 tournament drew 805 entrants for a total prize pool of $3,783,500. 6-max No Limit Hold’Em is a different beast than full-ring and most consider it more conducive to the styles of better players. Online pro Massimo states, “6-max games usually play more aggressive and it is easier for a good player to control a 6-max table than a full-ring table.” Given this favorableness for the elite, it is no surprise the field included big names such as Betrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Gavin Griffen, Dan Shak, Joe Hachem, Lee Watkinson, and Ryan Daut.

After the first day, there were less than 100 players left in the running. Jesper Peterson was in the chip lead with over 200,000 chips and Daut, ElkY, and Dan Shak were still contending for the bracelet. Day 2 was to end with the final table tickets punched. When it was down to eight players, Jimmy Wong made a successful bluff against FTR’s Rich “nutsinho” Lyndaker. But, on the very next hand he went all-in with A-10 and Lyndaker was not about to fold his A-Q which had Wong crushed. But, when a 10 came on the turn, Wong’s “lucky 10’s” seemed to be the victor. But, in True Poker form, a Q came on the river and it was over for Wong who cashed for $82,858.

With seven players left they condensed to one table. After some banter, and of course some poker too, it was again Lyndaker who would do the eliminating. Will Failla’s all-in with A-K was just not at the right moment as Lyndaker flipped over A-A and the board would do nothing to help Failla. Failla took home $82,858 for his efforts.

When the final table was set, Lyndaker and Joe Cammisso were the big stacks at the table. Lyndaker did most of the heavy lifting as he eliminated Davidi Kitai in 6th and then Thomas Lutz and Sam Trickett in 5th and 4th over the next two and a half hours. Although Lyndaker eliminated the first three people, Cammisso maintained the chip lead by taking a few big pots off of Lyndaker and eliminating Edward Ochana in third.

Going into what would be the longest heads-up match of the World Series to date, Cammisso enjoyed a 2:1 chip lead over Lyndaker which he would slowly improve to 4:1 over the first hour. Lyndaker then survived eight pre-flop all-ins, for four of which he was behind. The crucial hand of the tournament came when Lyndaker had taken the chip lead from Cammisso. Lyndaker raised and Cammisso called from the big blind. Cammisso checked a flop of K-8-6 and Lyndaker continued with a bet. Cammisso raised Lyndaker’s bet about three times and Lyndaker moved all-in. Cammisso had commited enough chips and called with 9-7 making an up-and-down straight draw. When the 5 came on the turn Cammisso completed his draw and took a massive chip lead. Soon after Lyndaker moved all-in with 9-7 and Cammisso called with A-Q. The flop, turn, and river proved no help to Lyndaker and he was gone in second taking home $570,551. Cammisso had won an epic battle and cashed for the biggest prize of the World Series so far, $911,855.

The full list of cashes is as follows:

1. Joe Commisso
$911,855

2. Richard Lyndaker
$570,551

3. Edward Ochana
$368,891

4. Sam Trickett
$245,927

5. Thomas Lutz
$174,041

6. Davidi Kitai
$120,693

7. Will Failla
$82,858

8. Jim Wong
$82,858

9. Steven Ware
$63,941

10. Bryan Pope
$63,941

11. Alex Jacob
$45,023

12. Leo Kam
$45,023

13. Jesper Petersen
$31,781

14. Jason Gray
$31,781

15. Paul Foltyn
$31,781

16. Bertrand Grospellier
$31,781

17. Karl Wiklund
$31,781

18. Joanne (J.J.) Liu
$31,781

19. Robert Forsman
$26,106

20. Gabriellson Ferit
$26,106

21. Riku Koivurinne
$26,106

22. Eduard Scharf
$26,106

23. Magnus Persson
$26,106

24. Keith Hawkins
$26,106

25. Christopher Kline
$20,430

26. Maurizio Biasini
$20,430

27. Andrey Zaichenko
$20,430

28. Shannon Shorr
$20,430

29. Ray Henson
$20,430

30. Elliot Smith
$20,430

31. Ryan Daut
$16,647

32. Steven Weusten
$16,647

33. David Farber
$16,647

34. Chris Dombrowski
$16,647

35. Bryn Kenney
$16,647

36. Christos Vlassis
$16,647

37. Philip Sparta
$14,377

38. Nikolay Evdakov
$14,377

39. Tony Hachem
$14,377

40. Yuri Bokkel
$14,377

41. Keith Tilston
$14,377

42. Richard Murnick
$14,377

43. Craig Duffy
$12,107

44. Greg Pierson
$12,107

45. Patryk Hildebranski
$12,107

46. Edward Martin
$12,107

47. Darrell Dicken
$12,107

48. Michael Hogbom
$12,107

49. Jonathan Aguiar
$10,972

50. Eugene Todd
$10,972

51. Jason Mercier
$10,972

52. Benjamin Hamnett
$10,972

53. Michael McClain
$10,972

54. James Burgoine
$10,972

55. Adam Elpayaa
$9,837

56. Clifford Pappas
$9,837

57. Michael Goldberg
$9,837

58. William Elliot
$9,837

59. Aaron Wilt
$9,837

60. Eric Mutrie
$9,837

61. Jens Klaning
$9,080

62. Nathan Sumrall
$9,080

63. Ken Einiger
$9,080

64. Nick Binger
$9,080

65. Daniel Shak
$9,080

66. Michael Glasser
$9,080

67. Alexander Millar
$8,323

68. Jonathan Heath
$8,323

69. Glen Chorny
$8,323

70. Devin Lake
$8,323

71. Robert Eckstut
$8,323

72. Richard Ashby
$8,323

73. Philip Yeh
$8,323

74. Chris (Mac) McCormack
$8,323

75. Peter (Alan) Smurfit
$8,323

76. Fredrik Halling
$8,323

77. Al Adler
$8,323

78. Steven Goosen
$8,323

With the seemingly never ending growth in the world of poker it is no surprise it has even extended to the theater.  According to PokerPages, All In: The Poker Musical will make its debut in a one hour concert on July 4th and 5th. The performance will take place at the Masquerade Theater in the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, home of the World Series of Poker.

The musical was created by Tim Molyneux, with help from Phil Hellmuth and the World Series of Poker, and its story revolves around the final nine players at the World Series of Poker Main Event.  It is the first musical to be made about poker or to be made in conjunction with a sports brand.  It displays the characteristics that make up a poker player represented in poker faces from all walks of life, just like at the final table of the World Series.  There are clearly identifiable characters which sing songs about poker and how it relates to life. “Through the lyrics of the songs and style of music, we see not only who these final nine players are, but we are able to see ourselves, our families, and our world,” said Phil Hellmuth, 11-time World Series bracelet winner.

Alongside Molyneux, who is a renowned creator featured on E! and Lifetime, there is a world class cast including Broadway vets such as Jimmy Lockett, Reva Rice, and Brandon Nix.  Molyneux presents a fast-paced musical with many different types of songs mirroring the many types of characters.  “The game of poker is metaphor for the game of life,” said Jeffrey Pollack, WSOP commissioner. “Now one man’s vision and creativity will show us just how close they really are in this special concert.”

While poker continues to grow, some still look at it as a game played with sketchy characters in an underground warehouse.  Jennifer Harmon explains how Molyneux’s musical helps bridge the knowledge gap. “Tim Molyneux has done what others have tried to do by capturing the global phenomena of poker by brilliantly tying it to one of the most powerful forces on earth, music.  Poker is life and Tim shows us this in a very entertaining way.”

The World Series has chosen to debut one of the songs from the show during the Main Event, citing it’s relevance to the moment. “All In: The Poker Musical really captures what the WSOP brand stands for and reminds us all that anyone can win and anyone can win on poker’s greatest stage,” said Pollack.  Molyneux added, “Our show embraces the spirit of this great city and mixes it with the fun and passion of poker, music, and dance.”

Event 9 of this 2008 World Series of Poker was one of three, 6-max, No Limit Hold’Em tournaments on the schedule.  6-max Event 31 has a buy-in of $2500 and 6-max Event 46 has a buy-in of $5000, but Event 9 lead the way to the bigger cash with a buy-in of $1500.

The event featured 1,236 entrants for a final prize pool of $1,687,140, and took place over the course of three days. Since a huge amount of the big name pros were playing in the mixed game extravaganza, also know as Event 8, Event 9 had a field laced with new comers and unknown seasoned pros trying to make their mark.

Ralph (Rep) Porter, who eventually would take down his first bracelet, was no stranger to success.  Before his bracelet win which pushed his earnings into the millions, he had cashes in major tournaments over the last four years totaling well into the six-figure range.  His largest being 39th in last years Main Event for over $200,000.

Poker Pro Michael Brummelhuis was the chip leader going into the final table and Porter was in third.  But, after two sizable pots in which Porter triumphed over Brummelhuis, Porter ended up with a major chip lead and Brummelhuis was sent to rails in 6th. Porter kept his chip lead until he was three-handed with fellow pros Nathan Templeton (30 years old) and Devin Porter (24 years old), who is not related to Rep.

After some heads-up play, the younger of the two Porters, Devin, had acquired the chip lead.  Rep’s tournament life was then on-the-line when he went all-in with pocket tens against the AJ of Devin.  Rep’s tens held up and he then had a massive chip lead.  The pot left Devin with less than a couple of blinds and it only took one more hand for him to be the 3rd place finisher.

As heads up play began, Rep was a 2.7 to 1 chip leader of Templeton.  One double-up could have changed everything, but on only the fourth hand Rep called Templeton’s all-in and was in great position as Templeton held K9 to the KQ of Porter.  The board couldn’t bail Templeton out as he was eliminated in second, but not before taking home $231,981.

Rep was casual in his bracelet win, “It’s great. I’ve been trying to win one of these for a little while,” he said.  He has cashed ten times in WSOP events before and winning on the 11th money finish is not too bad.  Porter took home $372,929 for his efforts and said he will be back for at least 10 to 12 more events this year, hopefully to capture another bracelet.

The final results for Event 9 are as follows:

1.
Ralph (Rep) Porter
$372,843

2.
Nathan Templeton
$231,982

3.
Devin Porter
$151,843

4.
John Conkright
$101,228

5.
Anatoly Shilyuk
$70,860

6.
Michael Brummelhuis
$53,314

7.
Dave Zand
$36,442

8.
Kevin MacPhee
$36,442

9.
Andrew Fegan
$28,006

10.
Jared Okun
$28,006

11.
John Von Halle
$19,570

12.
Thomas Fuller
$19,570

13.
Richard Tatalovich
$13,665

14.
Peter Marr
$13,665

15.
Mikey Stotz
$13,665

16.
Jason Dewitt
$13,665

17.
Frank Blumlein
$13,665

18.
Tom Braband
$13,665

19.
Avery Cardoza
$11,135

20.
Eric Kesselman
$11,135

21.
Michael Marquez
$11,135

22.
Stephanie Klempner
$11,135

23.
Zachary Clark
$11,135

24.
Thomas Patzner
$11,135

25.
Jesse Starke
$8,604

26.
Richard Lee
$8,604

27.
Christian Closson
$8,604

28.
Ryan Milisits
$8,604

29.
James Bord
$8,604

30.
Paul (Tashi) Kobel
$8,604

31.
Victor Bensaedon
$6,917

32.
Andrew Scott
$6,917

33.
Dominic Sinagra
$6,917

34.
Christian Iacobellis
$6,917

35.
Antuan Bunkley
$6,917

36.
Benjamin Fineman
$6,917

37.
Paul Niemela
$5,904

38.
Tom Dobrilovic
$5,904

39.
Barry Woods
$5,904

40.
Donald Robinowitz
$5,904

41.
Wesley Pantling
$5,904

42.
Jon Danielsson
$5,904

43.
Matthew Matros
$4,892

44.
Chris Householder
$4,892

45.
Ryan Young
$4,892

46.
John Burg
$4,892

47.
William (Bill) Burdick
$4,892

48.
Shijia Liu
$4,892

49.
Lu Wang
$4,386

50.
Brent Bibby
$4,386

51.
Laura Kallen Wakeland
$4,386

52.
Richard Shorten
$4,386

53.
Brandon Lee
$4,386

54.
Gavin Kelly
$4,386

55.
Ian Frazer
$3,880

56.
Steve Rassi
$3,880

57.
Mathieu Jacqmin
$3,880

58.
Allie Prescott
$3,880

59.
Mark Utterbach
$3,880

60.
William Mikolay
$3,880

61.
Jared Hamby
$3,542

62.
Cody Slaubaugh
$3,542

63.
Carl Olson
$3,542

64.
Shankar Phillai
$3,542

65.
Ernie Rossi
$3,542

66.
Neil Channing
$3,542

67.
Zachary King
$3,205

68.
Ron Fani
$3,205

69.
Edouard Damidot
$3,205

70.
Nghia Le
$3,205

71.
Jacob Diarmuid
$3,205

72.
john Farley
$3,205

73.
Jeff Murray
$3,205

74.
Joseph Brooks
$3,205

75.
Mike Parisi
$3,205

76.
David Huff
$3,205

77.
Roland Irsa
$3,205

78.
MICHAEL MICHNIK
$3,205

79.
Brian Lamanna
$2,868

80.
Will (Mr. Lucky) O’Brien
$2,868

81.
Anthony Gargano
$2,868

82.
Richard Vallandigham
$2,868

83.
Daniel Radditz
$2,868

84.
James Drane
$2,868

85.
Timothy Bannigan
$2,868

86.
Graham Wheldon
$2,868

87.
Kenneth-Kun Lee
$2,868

88.
Jonathan Jaffe
$2,868

89.
Kenneth Lowe
$2,868

90.
Andrew Ferguson
$2,868

91.
Clint Schafer
$2,530

92.
Jonathan Depa
$2,530

93.
Joshua Flamm
$2,530

94.
Don Mullis
$2,530

95.
Jasom Smith
$2,530

96.
James Routos
$2,530

97.
Eric Lynch
$2,530

98.
David Longmuir
$2,530

99.
Noah Ament
$2,530

100.
Charles Fond
$2,530

101.
Pascal Baumgartner
$2,530

102.
Osmin Darden
$2,530

103.
George Bronstein
$2,530

104.
Elton Beebe
$2,530

105.
Ryan Henderson
$2,530

106.
Kenneth Gacek
$2,530

107.
Earl Morgan
$2,530

108.
Chad Layne
$2,530

109.
Louis (Lou) Werman
$2,277

110.
Richard Hendin
$2,277

111.
Nicholas Finamore
$2,277

112.
David Pecaski
$2,277

113.
Caroline Cooper
$2,277

114.
Ted (Edward) Lawson
$2,277

115.
Todd Jones
$2,277

116.
Christopher Finn
$2,277

117.
Kimberly Brown
$2,277

118.
Thomas Savitsky
$2,277

119.
Bruce Sparks
$2,277

120.
Harry Cheung
$2,277

121.
Shawn Grigus
$2,277

122.
Jeffrey Marr
$2,277

123.
Annand (Victor) Ramdin
$2,277

124.
Mark Smith
$2,277

125.
John Warchelak
$2,277

126.
Jonathan Pepin
$2,277

According to UK PokerNews, Irish Professional Padraig Parkinson has joined the PokerTrillion Team. Best known for his ebullient personality at the poker table, he is also a successful tournament player with over 1.3 million dollars in career tournament winnings.

Parkinson’s best finish was his win of the 2002 Grand Finale on the British television series “Late Night Poker”, against such notables like Phil Hellmuth. However, his most notable finish was third place in the 1999 World Series of Poker Main Event. He has also cashed in six World Poker Tour events, and one European Poker Tour event, to go along with his six money finishes in the World Series of Poker.

UK Poker News cited Padraig as one of the most popular international poker faces; loved also for his commentary with Jesse May. As well as playing under the Poker Trillion label, Parkinson will also offer a blog on the website. Poker Trillion C.E.O Andy Pyrah said, “Padraig will offer poker enthusiasts something a little bit different to all the other mundane diaries offered by other poker personalities.” Pyrah continued, “I’ve been fortunate enough to be cornered by Padraig many times and he really is a comical genius as well as top class player, and there’s a queue of people willing to testify to that!”

Parkinson’s beloved co-commentator Jesse May followed Pyrah’s lead with, “Padraig Parkinson hopes and breathes the World Series of Poker. He is the spirit of the WSOP wrapped up in an Irish brogue. You will laugh, shake your head, and stamp your feet. You’ll know that you’ve been there, on the inside of the greatest poker show on earth, from the perspective of the only man who wants to win it more than you do yourself.”