The new Tournament of Champions will pit 27 former bracelet winners against each other in a $1 million freeroll. Two of these spots are reserved for sponsors, who may use them to draft in stars who have yet to win a bracelet. Also confirmed is the 2009 WSOP Champion Joe Cada, who will still be the reigning world champion when the tournament begins. Alongside him will be the WSOP Europe Main Event winner Barry Shulman and the three previous winners of the Tournament of Champions: Mike Sexton (2006), Mike Matusow (2005), and Annie Duke (2004). The remaining 20 places are open to any of the 512 living bracelet winners.

The decision on who gets to play is being left to the poker-loving public. Head over to the WSOP website to register and pick your own dream 20. So long as there’s still breath in their body, anyone who has won a bracelet in the WSOP’s 40-year history is up for consideration. Letting the fans choose who they want to see at the table may result in some worthy players missing out on a seat, but it should make for one of the most entertaining tournaments in recent memory. Voting has already begun and concludes at midnight on June 15th.

You can take a look at the current Top 50, less than half of whom will eventually make it into the event. At the time of going to press, there are plenty of big names on the list, many of whom must be shoe-ins for a seat. A selection of the high-profile players currently leading the race includes: Johnny Chan, Peter Eastgate, Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Dario Minieri, Erick Lindgren, Huck Seed, Jeff Lisandro, Phil Ivey, Joe Hachem, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Phill Hellmuth, Chris Moneymaker, Allen Cunningham, Erik Seidel, Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Barry Greenstein, Scotty Nguyen, and Annette Obrestad. There are few more obscure characters on the list, including the legendary Amarillo Slim, who has been largely absent from the poker scene in recent years. Costa Rican Humberto Brenes undoubtedly has the skill to qualify, but given his lack of TV exposure, it’s a surprise to see him up with these well known superstars. Other outside bets who have snuck into the Top 50 include 27-year-old double bracelet winner Daniel Alaei, 2008 Limit Hold ‘em Championship winner Rob Hollink, and veteran Chinese grinder Chau Giang.

“Winning the ToC marks one of the most memorable events in my poker career and I’m ecstatic that the WSOP is hosting this prestigious event,” announced Annie Duke. She’ll have another shot at taking down that title on June 27th, when the 27 entrants will play down to a final table. There will then be a mini – November Nine style – delay until Jun 4th, when the tournament will conclude, the day before the Main Event gets underway. The Tournament of Champions will be filmed by ESPN and turned into a two-hour dedicated broadcast, due to air on August 3rd. The tournament has no buy-in and will not award a bracelet, but it does carry a hefty $1,000,000 prize pool. The winner will pick up $500,000, with $250,000 and $100,000 for 2nd and 3rd respectively. The remaining prize money will be split into $25,000 chunks from 4th down to 9th.

Action will get underway on May 27th, with a flurry of satellites and the traditional Casino Employees tournament. A day later, the first open event of the 2010 WSOP looks set to kick things off in style. Since its creation in 2006, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. was considered by the pros to be the most effective test of a poker players abilities. The first iteration was won by one of the all time greats, Chip Reese. His death shortly after that victory lead to the creation of a commemorative Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.

In 2010, the $50k H.O.R.S.E. is no more, replaced by an even more challenging Mixed Event. The new Player’s Championship has been crafted with the aid of the Player’s Advisory Council and is slated to be the ultimate test of all round poker tournament prowess. It still boasts the $50,000 buy-in and awards the Chip Reese trophy to the winner. The game will rotate between Limit Hold ‘em, Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Seven Card Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or better, No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. The game changes permanently to No Limit Hold ‘em for the final table, so that it can be easily broadcast on ESPN.

ESPN has not yet completely decided which events they will be covering, but thanks to a deal inked by former commissioner Jeffery Pollack, they are committed to the WSOP for years to come. Their regular television broadcasts are sure to feature one or more of the new $1,000 No Limit Hold ‘em tournaments that appear all across the 57-event schedule. Last year’s $1k ‘Stimulus Special’ attracted in a massive 6,012 players – a record for a non-Main Event tournament. Next year, there are $1k NLHE tournaments on 5 consecutive weekends from May 29th to Jun 27, and then another on July 1st.

The whole of the World Series builds towards the Main Event, which returns in 2010 largely unchanged. It will begin on Monday, July 5th and run until July 7th, before returning with the November Nine from Nov. 6th-9th. The WSOP is now taking up the entire convention area at the Rio, so there’s even more space to build a record breaking crowd. On Day 1D of last year’s Main Event, hundreds of players were shut out. To avoid similar problems this year, players are strongly advised to register early. The WSOP is also setting a time limit, after which competitors will not be able to select their preferred starting day. Pre-registration is open for all events now, either in person at the Rio or online at www.WSOP.com.

A far reaching change, which will effect absolutely every event, is the introduction of strict timing limits. Every event now covers at least two days and can only feature a certain number of levels. The first tournament of the day will begin at noon and run for a maximum of 10 hours. The second event of the day will start at 5 p.m. and run for no longer than 8 hours. This means that the two flights should be finished by 12:45 a.m. and 2:45 a.m. respectively. Last year, marathon sessions running until 6 and even 8 a.m. were not unheard of. Returning for Day 2, the noon events will restart at 2:30 p.m. and the 5 o’clock tournaments at 3 p.m. – except for the Main Event, which starts at noon every day.

As ever there’s a tournament for every kind of poker, with No Limit Hold ‘em easily the most popular. Making a welcome return are shootout, lowball, Heads-Up, and Triple Chance events, along with the Ante Up For Africa charity tournament. A $10k H.O.R.S.E. championship will be featured, alongside the traditional Ladies and Seniors events. As with last year, there are no rebuys, although six PLO and PLO 8 or better events will have a fixed number of rebuys included in the buy-in. The full schedule can be viewed here.

Joe Cada 2009 World Series of Poker Champion

On November 10th, Joe Cada changed poker history as the youngest man to ever win the World Series of Poker Main Event.  Few expected the record would be broken so soon, since Peter Eastgate had just set it in 2008 at the age of 22, but the 21-year-old Cada was able to withstand the competition and take down this year’s final table.  Following his win, Cada graciously allowed FlopTurnRiver.com to take a first hand look into his thoughts on his win, the final table break, and more.

As you may recall, Cada started the final table in 5th place with 13,215,000 chips.  Struggling, Cada soon found himself as the small stack of the table, even down to the point of just 2 million chips.  A majority of people hadn’t expected the comeback that Cada made, not even Cada himself.  As quoted in his exclusive interview with FlopTurnRiver.com, Joe Cada stated, “I wanted to win. I didn’t expect to win. I knew the odds we stacked against me, and it didn’t stop me from wanting it, but it did stop me from expecting it. [When I was down to 2 million chips] I was looking down at my hands and started to get very disappointed. I thought, I’m going to finish in 7th, for sure.”

However, all that changed when he was able to double up, twice, in hands against Jeff Shulman and Darvin Moon.  From there, Cada was able to add to his healthy chip stack size, get heads-up against Darvin Moon, and take down the $8,546,435 first place prize, along with the coveted World Series of Poker Main Event world championship bracelet.  Cada said the first purchase with his prize money was a bunch of push pops for his loyal friends who had sore throats from cheering him on.

The four month break caused much anticipation for this eventual win, and we wanted to get Cada’s thoughts on this recent addition to the WSOP, both as an observer and a participant.  “I tried to ignore most of the hype and the talk leading up to the final table,” he said. “I was able to put the binders on for the most part, and by the time I got to the final table I was surprisingly comfortable.”  He also highlighted both the negative and positive sides to the break. “I feel like the break may have hurt me slightly because I had a good grasp of my game and I understood the other players. But then everyone had all this time to change their games up. I do think the break was needed because allowing the media a chance to pay attention is really good for poker.”

When asked how being a World Series of Poker champion will affect him, Cada stated, “I’ll focus both on tournaments and cash games. I also want to play on High Stakes Poker, so that’s obviously higher than I’m used to, but I won’t be changing stakes online at all. I will make really careful decisions about game selection when I do finally move up in levels.”

Cada is obviously excited about his WSOP Main Event win and his new sponsorship with PokerStars, and with good reason.  He already has some major live events lined up too.  His next planned appearance will most likely be at the Five Diamond in Las Vegas this month, but he will certainly be attending the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January.

Congratulations to Joe Cada and your fabulous win!  The full exclusive interview can be found at http://www.flopturnriver.com/Joe-Cada.php.

For decades, Binion’s was the home of Las Vegas poker. The likes of Doyle Brunson and Stu Ungar would regularly be found settling down at the felt in the vibrant poker room. However, throughout the 90s its cache slowly waned. In 1998 Benny’s daughter Becky Behnen took over operations and things began to spiral out of control. The casino reached a low point in 2004, when U.S. Marshals orchestrated a raid, in order to obtain unpaid employee benefits. Shortly after that, the building and the WSOP were sold to Harrah’s. They moved the WSOP to the Rio in 2006 and sold of the building to the MTR Gaming Group, who then sold it to TLC Enterprises in 2008.

A spokeswoman for TLC announced, “Our hotel rooms were no longer competitive in the market. We had to make cuts where our biggest drains were.” She added that, “we plan to reopen [the hotel], but we can’t speculate when that will happen.” Most of the gambling areas in the casino remain open, but the coffee shop and Keno parlour are also for the chop. As a result of these closures, around 100 of Binion’s 800 employees will lose their jobs.

Poker fans and historians will be happy to hear that Binion’s small poker room continues to operate. It houses 10 tables, along with the Gallery of Champions, an exhibition which commemorates the long history of the WSOP. Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, and Chris Moneymaker have all picked up Main Event bracelets in that room, and nowhere else in the world is there such a concentration of poker history.

The hotel will shut its doors on the 14th of December, up to which point all reservations are being honoured. Anyone booked in beyond that point will be transferred to another one of TLC Enterprises’ downtown properties. The Four Queens will now be the rest destination of choice for anyone planning to visit Binion’s Casino.

First, in celebration of awarding $5million since the inception of the Battle of the Planet leaderboards began, they are doubling the prize pool for each division from Nov 8 – Nov 21. If you are not familiar, Battle of the Planets is a sit n go leaderboard. It is divided into different “planets” for the different SNG stakes.

In news, PokerStars nabbed the newest (and youngest) WSOP Main Event Champion, 21 year old Joe Cada. PokerStars is huge $$$$ and I am sure their sponsorship deal is so lucrative the champion can’t say no. They are also running a 100k Congrats Joe Cada tournament on November 22.

The PokerStars Sunday Million had its largest prize pool ever. With over 18,000 entrants the prizepool was about $3.65 million. First place was just over $280,000.

The Turbo Takedown, a massive tourney where the buy-in is 3000 FPPs (player points), is set to take place at the end of the month on the 29th. In addition to the $1 million prize pool, there are pro bounties, bonuses for repeat cashes, and the winner receives an Audi TT.

PokerStars currently has tons of PCA satellites going on. They picked up this popular tournament from the WPT and put it on their own LAPT early next year in January. The PCA satellites are sure rival the WSOP satellites in volume. In addition to real money satellites, freerolls to the PCA start every hour at twenty past the hour. You have no excuse not to qualify!

Finally, PokerStars has lowered its minimum electronic check (E-check) deposit to just $10! Turn a little into a lot!

PokerStars continues to kill the market, they have about twice as many players online at any given time compared to Full Tilt. They have the best customer support. Their VIP program is insane when you reach the higher levels. If you are playing higher stakes (especially SNGs), you are burning money by not playing at Stars. The money they make and therefore are able to give away in promotions is unrivaled.

Go check out PokerStars today!

Over Pollack’s 4 series, the WSOP has undergone some huge changes. Almost all of his gambles have paid off; even the controversial introduction of the November Nine has proven to be a good move for the game. Among the other innovations Pollack has overseen are, the invention of the Player’s Advisory Council, the $50,0000 H.O.R.S.E. event, the WSOP Europe, and the growth of Ante Up For Africa. He also turned his media-savvy hand to increasing the TV presence of the WSOP. One of his last acts as Commissioner was to ink a 7-year broadcast deal with ESPN.

Although he had never played a poker tournament before taking on the role, Pollack had an impressive sporting CV. He is the former NASCAR Managing Director and NBA Vice President. Although he originally joined Harrah’s as Marketing Vice President in 2006, he was quickly promoted to the role he has made his own. So much his own in fact, that Harrah’s have announced that they have “no intention at this time to replace the Commissioner role.” Some had picked Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment head and former PartyGaming CEO Mitch Garber as a likely replacement, but it seems like it will be some time before anyone arrives to fill Jeffery’s shoes.

Pollack was a firm believer in the power of modern social media and was active on Twitter, blogs, and vlogs. Many poker fans first heard of his departure via their twitter feeds. “It’s true…..Today is my last day as your #WSOP Commissioner….,” he wrote earlier today. Sadly, the account now appears to have been deactivated. Twitter has also been the medium for a general outpouring of affection for Pollack. Both seasoned pros and media-types have been united in their praise for the outgoing Commissioner. “Jeffrey Pollack was a terrific WSOP Comissioner, and he is a fair and reasonable man,” tweeted Phil Hellmuth just moments ago. “I’d like to publicly thank him for allowing me the artistic freedom to cover the WSOP in my way,” said talented poker blogger Dr. Pauly, adding that, “There will only be one Commish in poker and that’s Jeffrey Pollack.”

Some people have speculated that a more lucrative offer provided the motive for his departure. However, he has claimed that, “I’ve achieved everything I set out to do and more.” Pollack publicly stated that he would always be a, “friend to poker,” and hinted that, “maybe [he’ll] even play the main event next year.” The WSOP released their own statement, in which they echoed the glowing praise arriving from all corners of the poker world. “We appreciate Jeffrey’s contributions over the past four years and wish him the best in the future. The World Series of Poker remains the market leader with this year’s tournament exceeding all expectations, and we are well positioned for the future.”

The story of this year’s World Series of Poker belongs to the 46-year old Darvin Moon.  A logger from the small town of Oakland, Maryland, he has become the everyman’s poker icon similar to Chris Moneymaker in 2003.  However, in many ways, Darvin Moon is different.

Moon learned to play poker with his grandfather with whom he played seven-card stud.  However, it was not until three years ago that he learned the game of Texas Hold ‘Em.  He began to play poker more often to raise money for local fire stations and other charities.

After winning a $130 qualifier in his neighboring state of West Virginia, Darvin faced a difficult decision.  “The economy is bad and the logging business is terrible.  I thought I would go out and get my $10,000, instead of playing,” describes Moon.  He rode his first airplane to visit Las Vegas for the first time in his life.  After visiting the Rio’s Amazon Room and witnessing the allure of the World Series of Poker, Moon signed up for the tournament.  Moon’s wife and brother both supported his decision to enter the tournament.  His brother’s response to Moon’s dilemma was, “You’re a fool.  Play.  We don’t need that $10,000 in the business.”

His improbable eight day run of cards sent him to the final table.  “That is the way my whole tournament went.  All eight days, no matter what I did, it worked out,” said Moon of his tournament heater.  After those eight days, Moon made the final table and was guaranteed at least $1.26 million.  As humble as he always is, he stated, “I never imagined I’d have to go back.”

The cards continued to hit Moon as he won second place in 2009’s World Series of Poker along with $5.1 million.  Asked what he will do with his money, he promises his life would not change: “I’ve got to be back to work Friday.  I’ve got a piece of timber I’ve got to buy.”

Moon is ready to see his life go back to normal.  He surprised the poker world when he proclaimed he would not be signing an endorsement deal with any online poker room.  Moon explained, “They want you to sign a contract where, they say, they own you for a year…There is not enough money in the world for someone to tell me what to do.”

Darvin Moon’s humility and to keep at his old lifestyle has won the poker world’s affection.  He will be back to work on Friday and playing in “Greg’s biweekly tournament down at the Elks, with Joey and Kevin and Mama Marley and them.”  The entry fee?  $30.

Here is how the chip counts stacked up:

Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000
Joseph Cada – 13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
James Akenhead – 6,800,000

Out in ninth place was Englishman James Akenhead who finished runner up in a 2008 WSOP preliminary event. Akenhead got coolered early on, running K-K into A-A, and pushed his shortstack holding 3-3 into the 9-9 of 51 year old Kevin Schaffel. The board was no help to Akenhead, but the $1.2 million for ninth place had to of helped.

About twenty minutes after Akenhead’s exit, Schaffel was fortunate enough to get all-in preflop again with A-A. Eric Buchman showed K-K as the two players wait for the community cards to fall. The K-Q-J flop put 28 year old tournament grinder Buchman in the driver’s seat after being a 4-1 underdog preflop. Akenhead needed a T or an A on the turn or river, but no help came, sending Schaffel home to Florida with $1.3 million.

Darvin Moon – $58,000,000
Eric Buchman – 453,000,000
Steve Begleiter – $25,000,000
Antoine Saout – $22,000,000
Jeff Shulman – $16,000,000
Phil Ivey – $9,000,000
Joe Cada – $8,000,000

The players played two more hours until the dinner break at 10 PM.

Eric Buchman – $54,000,000
Darvin Moon – $41,000,000
Steve Begleiter – $38,000,000
Antoine Saout – $27,000,000
Phil Ivey – $16,000,000
Joe Cada – $10,000,000
Jeff Shulman – $7,000,000

Shortly after the break, Phil Ivey moved all-in with A-K and was called, but dominated the A-Q of 45 year old lumberman Darvin Moon. The Q-6-6 flop brought a stunned look to Ivey’s face and silenced the crowd. The turn and river were bricks which shattered Ivey’s chance of winning the 2009 WSOP Main Event. Ivey would certainly trade the $1.4 million seventh place for another shot at the Main Event bracelet.

Eric Buchman – $53,000,000
Antoine Saout – $52,000,000
Darvin Moon – $40,000,000
Steve Begleiter – $22,000,000
Jeff Shulman – $16,000,000
Joe Cada – $10,000,000

Next to go was Steve Begleiter, who managed to qualify for the Main Event through his local poker league. Begleiter managed to get Q-Q all-in preflop versus the Moon’s A-Q of spades. The flop of 7-4-8 two spades turned the rest of the hand into a million dollar coin flip. The turn was a brick, and the river brought a spade sending Begleiter to the rail in sixth with over $1.5 million.

Next, 21 year old Joe Cada began to chip up. Cada three bet all-in with 3-3 and Jeff Shulman snapped with J-J. Cada flopped a set, and doubled up to 22,000,000 while Shulman was left with just 8,000,000 in chips. Next, Darvin Moon lost his mind and four bet Joe Cada all-in holding K-9 versus the A-A of Cada. Cada held and doubled up again.

Antoine Saout – $54,000,000
Eric Buchman – $49,000,000
Joe Cada – $45,000,000
Darvin Moon – $39,000,000
Jeff Shulman – $6,000,000

Card player editor Jeff Shulman shipped his short stack all-in with 7-7 and was called by Frenchman Antoine Saout. Saout hit a nine on the flop of 10-9-6 and Shulman failed to hit his outs on the turn or river. Shulman earned nearly $2 million for his fifth place finish.

Antoine Saout – $62,000,000
Eric Buchman – $55,000,000
Joe Cada – $45,000,000
Darvin Moon – $31,000,000

Countless all-in three bets propelled Moon into second place while Saout’s stack dwindled.

Buchman – $56,000,000
Moon – $53,000,000
Cada – $46,000,000
Saout – $39,000,000

Moon’s luck continued  when his A-K bested Buchman’s A-Q in a button versus blind battle. Moon was in control with nearly 90,000,000 in chips while Buchman plummeted to the bottom with about 10,000,000 in chips.

The players continued three handed until Antoine Saout reraised all in with 8-8 and was at risk with Cada showing A-K. The flop was a harmless 5-4-5. The turn bricked a 10, but the river was a heartbreaking King. Saout was eliminated in third, earning nearly $3.5 million. It was grueling 17 hours, but Cada and Moon would get be able to get some rest before going headsup for the most coveted WSOP bracelet.

Cada – $135,000,000
Moon – $58,000,000

Play resumed just past 1AM the next day.Within an hour young gun Joe Cada had blown his sizable chip lead and was out chipped by 100 million. Cada battled back and made an excellent call holding J-9, facing an all-in-checkraise, on a board of T-5-9-T. Darvin Moon showed 7-8 for a straight draw. The river was a 3 which allowed Cada to regain a slight chip lead.

About 15 minutes later it was over. Darvin Moon got himself in another marginal spot, getting his J-Q all in versus Joe Cada’s 9-9. The board ran out 8-7-2-K-7 sending Moon home as runner up with over $5 million. Joe Cada became the youngest Main Event champion ever at 21 years of age and earned over $8.5 million and the Main Event bracelet.

When he accepted his bracelet, Cada wanted to first congratulate the rest of the final table, including Moon. Cada also thanked his supporters. The 2009 Main Event has brought us a great champion and, more importantly, a young man on his way to becoming a great ambassador of poker

Within just two and a half hours of heads up play, Cada was able to eliminate Darvin Moon, the 46 year old logger from Maryland.  It was not without a fight though.  One hour into the action, Moon was able to use aggressive play to establish a 100 million chip lead on Cada.  Cada was able to catch some luck with a rivered straight though, and then a little later won a very decisive hand in which Moon had moved all-in.  Moon was riding on a straight draw and Cada was able to take the massive pot with a pair of 10s and 9s.  The final hand came down to an all-in preflop hand, Cada holding pocket 9s and Moon holding Q-J suited.  Again, two pair favored Cada as the board ran out 8-2-7-K-7, and it was all over for Moon.  Moon received $5,182,601 for his second place finish.

Cada, a Shelby Township, Michigan resident, traded in community college for the art of playing cards and hasn’t looked back since.  Prior to the Main Event he already had a considerable amount in poker winnings and two cashes in the 2009 WSOP.  His recent win, unexpected by many, is certainly something that most young poker players only dream about.  Cada stated, “I’ve dreamed of winning this tournament, and to do it the first year out of the gate is unbelievable.  This is just amazing.”

Winning the Main Event has already brought about several opportunities for Cada, including a signing with Team PokerStars PRO.  He will be joining the likes of Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, and Peter Eastgate, last year’s WSOP Main Event champion.

The first stop was Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. Ivey ignored the lavish villa prepared for him and proceeded to bet up to $50,000 on craps before leaving on his private plane. Rhyeem McCutchen, Ivey’s childhood friend, knows firsthand Ivey did not start out living the high life. Both grew up in Roselle, New Jersey where Ivey worked at a McDonald’s restaurant and shot dice in the bathroom to earn money.

After graduating from high school Ivey took a job as a telemarketer, but soon began to play poker in Atlantic City for days at a time. Phil Ivey developed a love for poker at the age of 8. To escape the heat of his parents home, which wasn’t air conditioned, Ivey would sneak downstairs where his grandpa lived. His grandpa taught him the game and Phil took an immediate liking to it. Eight year old Ivey loved poker, despite the fact he was playing for mere pennies and his grandpa was cheating him. Ivey’s grandpa cheated in an attempt discourage Phil from gambling.

Unfortunately, love for something doesn’t translate to immediate success. Ivey admits when he was 18 he sometimes lost all his money during the night at the casinos and was forced to sleep under Atlantic City’s Boardwalk. Ivey described waking up to the sun as a “disgusting feeling.” Despite the setbacks, Ivey was determined to make a living at poker and expressed his desire to be unlike his parents, working 9-5 jobs.

The crews next stop was the Casino de Montreal in Canada. Ivey nonchalantly wrote a check for one million dollars in chips so he could play on another private high stakes craps table. Ivey started out down $365,000 but soon was up to $1.500,000. Ivey allowed a member of the E 60 crew toss the dice for him, but he lost, costing Ivey $240,000. Despite the loss, Ivey finished up $750,000 in about half an hour of play.

At the age of 21 Ivey moved to Las Vegas to become a professional poker player. In just three years Phil Ivey amassed $550,000 by winning 4 WSOP bracelets. Not feeling satisfied, Ivey decided to play in a high stakes cash game at the Hustler Casino near Los Angeles. The pots in these high stakes games could be massive, reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars. Phil was soon down to the last $50,000 and called his friend McCutchen to sit behind him for his last stand. McCutchen conveyed to E 60 that Ivey was going to quit poker if he lost that last $50,000 to his name. That day Ivey destroyed the opposition, like he did in the WSOP tournaments, and finished with about two million dollars.

Amsterdam was the E 60 crews third stop. Phil expressed to the crew that today was a day off, which meant no gambling of any kind. The crew simply wandered around, taking in the sights and sounds of the beautiful city in the Netherlands.

Ivey continued to destroy Las Vegas cash games and tournaments. In 2006, Ivey and a group of players, deemed the Corporation, pooled their money together to each play billionaire Andy Beal heads up. In three days Ivey earned the group $16,600,000. The magnanimous Ivey bought his mother a condo, and provided his sister enough money to go to college and law school. Phil got a little something for himself too, a half-million Mercedes-McClaren SLR sports car.

The final stop for the E60 crew was an arena in Salzurg, Austria where Ivey was promoting Full Tilt poker. Thousands of fans cheered when he was introduced. He signed autographs and took pictures which could become more valuable if Ivey takes down the Main Event back in Las Vegas.

Phil Ivey has gone from sitting under the dark and cold boardwalk to sitting under the warm bright lights of the Main Event Final Table. His Main Event victory would be incredible, never has such a big name navigated its way to victory in a nearly 6500 player field. With all the obstacles Phil Ivey has overcome, it may be unwise to bet against him, it may be destiny.