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Professional Poker Players and Celebrities |
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Top 10 Poker Rooms
In 2008, the WSOP Main Event made headlines everywhere when it was decided that the final table of poker’s most prestigious tournament would be delayed a full 5 months to be played in November, instantly creating the moniker “November 9”.
The first year of the November 9 no big names actually made it to the final table. History was still made though, because 2008 featured the youngest ever Main Event Champion since Phil Hellmuth did it in ’89. But this year, 2009, the final table became a whole lot more special right from the outset. It is graced by none other than a living legend in the poker world; the guy people fear to play because he’s so good. He is the Mr. Sandman of poker. A prodigy of all forms of poker, he has won braclets in all sorts of disciplines of poker, such as Pot Limit Omaha, 7-Card Stud, No Limit 2-7 Lowball, Stud8 and even S.H.O.E., to prove it. I’m talking about Mr. Phil Ivey. But even Phil Ivey had to endure quite a few hardships to become a part of the November 9. Road to the November 9 - Phil Ivey's Day 1 and 2It started with Day 1. It turns out this year there were 4 day ones, 1A through 1D. On 1D, many players had to be turned away because the poker room was at capacity, with 2,809 participants. Among those that were denied entry were Brandon Adams, Mickey Appleman, “The Captain” Tom Franklin, Minh Ly, T.J. Clouthier, Layne Flack and even Ted Forrest. Those are just a few of the names. Ivey, luckily, registered and played on Day 1C, and made it through the day with an above average chip stack. He was raking in the chips, continuing the form he displayed during the rest of the 2009 WSOP. Prior to the Main Event he had already won two additional bracelets, bringing his lifetime total to an impressive 7. To deal with the registration snafu, WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack had to issue an impromptu news conference explaining to an angry crowd why Main Event registration had to be closed. One would assume that nearly 3,000 players in the same place would bring anywhere at or near full capacity, which is exactly what happened. But of course, in the heat of the moment, those left out were looking for things to break to appease their fury of having been left out of the Main Event. Sure enough, the WSOP.com team had to deal with an extremely angry mob during the news conference, but they did an amazing job at keeping the peace. On Day 2, tournament director Jack Effel announced the official numbers: 6,494 participants, with $8,500,000 for the winner. Of course, 8-and-a-half mizzle is enough inspiration for anyone to play at his best, even a guy who drives a Mercedes McLaren SLR. Phil Ivey continued his pace, and kept amassing chips on Day 1 as well. At the start of Day 2, Phil Ivey had 84,000 chips. Big name after big name was sent home, including Erick Lindgren, Victor Ramdin and Shannon Shorr during the first level, and Scotty Nguyen taking a sick beat when his Pocket Rockets went up against KT. The board came an absolutely heart crushing 5-5-K-T-K. Also eliminated during that bloodbath in the first hour was Andrew Feldman, Jonathan Little, Kathy Liebert and NBC HU runner up Vanessa Rousso. Phil Ivey, though, doubled up pretty early to escape the bloodbath. Not all was rosy though, since he lost about 30,000 chips on a failed bluff attempt. But not being one to give up easily, he forced his opponent to fold a flopped set of nines on a 4-J-9-7-8 board. Ivey is a master at mixing his hands, and you will never know when he has it or when he doesn’t. Remember the KK hand with flopped quads at the 2008 Aussie Million? Ivey managed to put his stack in among the leaders on Day 3, despite setbacks. The other well-known Phil, Phil Hellmuth, was also cruising along in the Main Event. He was up to 145,000 chips when the tournament was approaching the middle of Level 8. Of course, Hellmuth being Hellmuth, sat at the feature table and was giving his usual show. Meanwhile, the other Phil, Phil Ivey, was also destroying his opposition. But then Ivey went on a rollercoaster of bluffing, chipping up there, getting called on a bluff elsewhere, etc. He did bluff away a good part of his stack, but after having dipped into that valley, he became dominant. With 1,905 players left, Ivey amassed about 230,000 chips after having won a large pot in the classic KK > AK confrontation, with the AK belonging to Jonas Molander. At this point, Adam Levy, Lee Childs, Gavin Griffin, Michael Mizrachi and Howard Lederer would also have bid their goodbyes. On the other hand, Hevad Khan, Bertrand Grospellier and Kenny “SICK CALL KENNY” Tran would each squeak into the top 20 in chips. After finishing the action for the day, Ivey had an impressive 350,000 in his stack. He then went to the Bellagio to play in the 4k/8k big game that was running at the moment. Road to the November 9 - Phil Ivey's Day 3 through 6Going into the third day of action, Phil Ivey’s stack at the start would be right where he left off the previous day. At an impressive 350K chips, he was well among the leaderboards. Day 4 was marked as the bubble day. 648 of the more than 6,000 players who registered would go home with something to show for it, while the rest would all have to try again next year. Eliminations fell rapidly on Day 4, and the bubble was reached in no time with Kia Hamadani taking the honors as this year’s bubble boy. He would get a free entry to the 2010 WSOP Main Event, which is a pretty good consolation prize. Even Phil Hellmuth was a casualty of the 4th day. But Phil Ivey kept dodging harm, and he passed the 1 million chip mark on this day. Ivey finished the day with 1.27 million chips, earning him a place among the chip leaders. To understand how deep his stack was, Day 5 would start with the blinds at $5,000/$10,000 with a $1,000 ante. Matt Affleck was the current Top Chip, having 1.8 million chips in his stack. Chris Ferguson, Surinder Sunar, Paul Wasicka, Jesper Hougaard, Mike Sexton, Tom West, Kelly Kim, and John Myung were among the most notable casualties of Day 4. As we already know, Phil Ivey is an amazing player with a very long list of accolades, accomplishments and achievements in poker. Ivey with a stack is a force to be reckoned with in tournaments of any poker discipline. At the start of Day 5, tournament director Jack Effel announced that only 175 players would have to be eliminated for that day, meaning that the survivors would get a few extra hours to rest. Only 407 players would start the day, which meant that 232 would be lucky enough to make Day 6. For the first time during the whole Main Event, the hosting Amazon Room was truly roomy. Movement through the room was not impeded by an amazing amount of participants and packed tables everywhere. Alternate tables were removed, making the average size of gaps between the tables 15 to 20 feet wide, instead of the standard 3 to 4 feet they were during the early parts of the WSOP Main Event. Early Day 5 knockouts included Can Hua, Thor Hansen, Sorel "Imperium" Mizzi, Jeff Kimber,David Levi, Remy Biechel, Sander Lylloff and Burt Boutin. Boutin's elimination was the most painful, as he managed to get all his chips in with Pocket Aces, but his opponent holding Pocket Kings got the miracle King-high flop to end Boutin's tournament run. Ludovic Lacay and Matt Affleck, who started in 2nd and 1st place in chips, respectively, kept amassing chips and knocking out opponents and also kept their respective positions on the leaderboard. Former Main Event champs Joe Hachem, Dan Harrington and Peter Eastgate were still in the running at this point as well. More notables that still remained were “The Magician” Antonio Esfandiari, 2007 Player of the Year Tom Schneider, J.C. Tran, Barry Greenstein’s son Joe Sebok, high stakes cash player Hac “trex313” Dang and last year’s third place finisher Dennis Phillips. Oh, and also none other than France’s most famous poker player David Benyamine still remained in the running. Phil Ivey kept amassing chips in the background, with his usual roller coaster ride. He was down to 200,000 chips at one point during the day, but he finished strong just like he always does with 1.38 million chips. On the last hand of the day, Phil Ivey sent Huub Verdonschot (cool name!) to the rail in a classic race situation of 88 vs. AQo. Ivey’s 88 won the toss on a J92K3 rainbow board. Day 6 was an important one for Ivey. While in the Main Event every day of participation is an important one, Day 6 was especially important for Phil Ivey as the field was shrunk down to a manageable size and the goal was nearer. The goal was becoming the next Main Event Champion, of course. The remaining 185 players could feel this too. By the end of Day 6, only 64 would advance to the decisive Day 7. Darvin Moon shot to the top of the leaderboards very early, by cracking David Benyamine’s Kings. Phil Ivey would also get lucky, when he got all his chips in preflop with JJ vs. Hac Dang’s QQ, and got a Jack-high board. Ivey covered Dang in chips, so he sent Dang packing. Ivey continued in the driver’s seat of his bulldozer, also sending Kent Goulding home. The hand went down as follows: Phil Ivey raised his button in the unopened pot, Goulding 3bet from the big blind, and Ivey called. The flop came Q42 with two hearts. Goulding checked, and Ivey bet just enough to put Goulding at risk for his tournament life. Goulding then called with Q7 offsuit for top pair, and Phil Ivey showed Jh5h for a flush draw. The turn came an offsuit 9, and the river was the King of Hearts, and in this manner Ivey sent Goulding home as well. At the end of Day 6, Darvin Moon had a commanding chip lead over the field at 9,745,000 chips. Billy Kopp was second in command with 8,245,000 chips. However, the man nobody wanted to see with chips, Phil Ivey, ended the day with 6,345,000 chips, very close to the chip leaders and quite a lot more than the chip average. Notables who also made Day 7 included the man famous for the “Poker is fun” song Prahlad Friedman, and also Blair Rodman, Tom Schneider and Dennis Phillips. Road to the November 9 - Phil Ivey's Day 7 and 8Sixty-four remaining players returned to play on Day 7. Those 64 player represented the 1% of the starting field of 6,494 who were able to survive the six grueling days of poker, avoiding a number of potholes and mines along the way. Taking brutal beats and shrugging them off, maintaining concentration and stepping ahead were all part of the game . Surviving this day was everyone’s mission, just to get one step closer to being a part of 2009’s November Nine. However, the eliminations did start out in a pretty fast paced manner. Twenty-five players saw their tournament end before the players even had their dinner break. Through it all, Ivey looked like a master performing his art. At the end of the day, most of the big names still in contention had fallen, including Joe Sebok, Tom Schneider, Dennis Phillips, Fabrice Soulier and Blair Rodman. The only other big name remaining that was not Ivey was “The Magician” Antonio Esfandiari, who somehow magicked his way to the last 27. Esfandiari was pretty lucky, because at one point it looked like he was cruising all the way but then he had one key hand versus Darvin Moon that made half of Esfandiari’s stack vanish. He grinded his stack up back again, but once again clashed with Mr. Moon and lost most of his stack. Esfandiary finished the day with about 4,470,000 in chips. Phil Ivey, on the other hand, performed brilliantly, moving like the artful dodger, making timely bluffs and impressive laydowns and never skipping a beat. He continued dominating and not backing down to anybody. At one point during Day 7, he had 15,000,000 chips, eclipsing Moon to briefly be the chip leader of the 2009 WSOP Main Event! Ivey went on to finish the day with 11,350,000 chips, being fourth in chips to start Day 8. Day 8 was the most decisive one. Surviving this day would mean becoming a part of history, by earning a place on the second ever November Nine. As you might imagine, nobody wanted to be the November 9 bubble boy. As action resumed on noon pacific time of Wednesday July 15th 2009, Phil Ivey started right where he left the previous day, with a very healthy stack and being very very deep by tournament standards. The last woman remaining, Leo Margets of Barcelona, Spain, was the first elimination of the day. She heroically nursed a short stack for most of Day 6 and 7, but eventually she had to go down. Esfandiari also went down, when his pocket fives lost to Steve Begleiter’s KT offsuit for stacks. Phil Ivey would have to endure a very bad Day 8 too. First, his pocket Jacks lost to Nick Maimone’s Q5 offsuit, doubling Maimone up and losing Ivey about 1,030,000 chips in the process. After that hand, Ivey got another 2.5 million hit when he had JJ vs. Maro Mattes’ QQ. At the end of the level, Ivey had just under 7,000,000 chips, and his fans thought that his chances to get to the final table had drastically diminished. At the beginning of the next level, Phil Ivey again lost another race. This time it was his 22 vs. George Caragiorgas AT. Ivey's stack dipped below 4 million. Ivey was in a hopeless downward spiral, looking worse and worse with every passing second. His supporters were starting to lose hope. But then, in a fashion only a Phoenix could replicate, Ivey started a slow climb to get some of his chips back. At the start of the 31st level, Ivey had just about 5.4 million chips. Just 18 players were left. Steve Begleiter then took care of Ian Tavelli, calling Tavelli’s all-in bet on a low flop. Tavelli was holding pocket nines, while Begleiter was holding the cowboys. The cowboys would emerge unscathed from the hand, and Tavelli was sent home in 17th place giving Begleiter a 16 million chip pot making him the new chip leader. Ludovic Lacay was then eliminated in 16th place after losing a race with 77 vs. Jeff Shulman, the chief editor of CardPlayer’s AK. In the meantime, with 15 left standing, Phil Ivey had about 7,840,000 in chips. Slowly, but surely, he was getting his hands back on some chips. Ivey kept playing strong, hovering around the 7 million chip mark while eliminations were falling left and right of him. Nick Maimone, for instance, who rode an incredible wave of luck up until now, was eliminated in 15th place when he called a huge overbet with an unpaired AQo on a JT8 two-club board. His opponent, Eric Buchman, had J9 of diamonds. The turn in the hand was a J giving Buchman the upper hand in the hand, and the river was a deadly Q sending Maimone home. Ben Lamb and James Calderaro were eliminated next in 14th and 13th place, respectively. Billy Kopp, a 23-year old who dominated the tournament as one of the chip leaders for most of Day 6 and 7, was then be eliminated next in 12th place when he got it all-in versus the other big stack, Darvin Moon, on an all-diamond King-high flop. Kopp was holding 5d3d, while Moon was holding QdJd, and the pot of almost 40,000,000! Of course, Kopp was drawing dead on the flop and then gone. Phil Ivey, in the meantime, playing a focused game of betting and raising, climbed up to about 10 million in chips. Instead of losing hope like his fans when he was down to 4 million chips, about 1/3 of his Day 8 starting stack, Ivey showed the marks of a true champion by staying focused and in the game. His comeback was worthy of legend, considering the stakes involved and the inherent pressure they brought. Keeping your cool under these circumstances is unbelievably hard. Right after Kopp, Jamie Robbins was eliminated in 11th place. It was down to final table bubble time, or better said, 2009 November Nine bubble time. Who would take the lonely winding road at twilight leading to home? At this point, Phil Ivey was one of the shorter stacks, but his resilience proved very welcome. The remaining stacks at this most infamous bubble were as follows:
The tournament director then took time to introduce each of the remaining players to the remaining crowd. The strongest ovations were for James Akenhead (with a large, rowdy crowd of supporters, including Karl Mahrenholz), Phil Ivey ("Ivey, Ivey Ivey!"), Steven Begleiter ("Begs! Begs! Begs!) and Joe Cada ("YOU ARE A ROCKSTAR! SOUL CRUSHER!"). Ivey kept playing a tough game, betting and raising in a timely fashion now instead of recklessly, and maneuvering his way among the remaining players and potholes and other obstacles. Stacks were not permitting him to exert his usual bully-ish play, and instead he had to play in a very cautious and calculated manner. Only about half an hour later, the following hand happened: Eric Buchman opened for 650,000 chips, Darvin Moon flatted from the button, and Jordan Smith reraised to 2.6 million from the small blind. Buchman folded, but Moon called once again. The flop was the 8 of clubs, the 4 of diamonds and the Deuce of diamonds. Smith, first to act, checked. Moon bet 4,000,000 chips. Now, here was a very interesting situation for tournament play. In tournaments, you should not attack stacks bigger than yours on the bubble. Instead, you should handle hands versus Big Chips like the one Mr. Moon had with extreme caution, like you would handle a poisonous spider. Smith ignored this fact in the heat of the moment, and moved all-in over the top of Moon’s massive flop bet. Sure enough, Moon called and showed 88 for a flopped set of eights. Smith turned over his pocket aces sheepishly. Perhaps moving all-in preflop was a better play for him? In any case, the turn and river were both blanks and Jordan Smith was the 2009 November Nine bubble boy. 6485 hopefuls down, 8 to go. Despite at some points looking hopeless in his quest to reach the final table, and perhaps his first bracelet in No Limit Hold’em, which would be very fitting to be the Main Event bracelet, Phil Ivey kept his cool. He performed his art with calculated and handsome mastery. Ivey did what he usually does, and did it well, and performed admirably the whole way to the final table. The only thing that is between him and the most coveted bracelet in poker (and a cool addition $8,500,000!) is eight more players. Having one of the shorter stacks should not be that big of a problem, particularly because how deep everyone is. Words cannot describe how anxious the whole poker community is, awaiting the final table to play out. November cannot come soon enough. How will Phil Ivey perform at the final table? Will we see what we want to see? Only time will tell. In the meantime, hold your collective breaths and wait for that date, the 9th of November, 2009.
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