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Bertrand Grospellier is one of the hottest poker players in the world. Since the start of January, 2008, when Grospellier won $2,000,000 for taking down the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Grospellier has been on a rush. He followed up his PCA triumph with a win at the sixth annual Festa Del Lago Classic in October, and has sprinkled in several other top finishes as well, both live and online, including a third-place showing at the recently completed NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. The former professional StarCraft gamer known as “ElkY” recently shared insight on his rush with PokerNews:
PokerNews: First of all, let’s talk about your sensational last year. You said you received affirmation that your game is good. What are you convinced of now, that you still had doubts about in 2007?
Bertrand Grospellier: My first win in 2008 was a big tournament, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. It was a field that contained everything: a bunch of good players, but also many lesser players, including a lot of qualifiers. The other tournament, the WPT Festa al Lago, was a completely different tournament. The field was smaller, but there were no qualifiers and the whole field consisted solely of the biggest pros. A year later I also won the High Roller Event at the PCA. This tournament had a much higher buy-in, and as a result the whole field was made up of really big players. With these wins I proved to myself that I can beat any field, and that was a really good feeling.
PN: Then there was the final hand of the PCA 2008. You made a raise with 8-8 and Hafiz Khan moved all in. You asked him how much he had left and you saw him get worried when he found out how much he still had. Was that the only reason you decided to make this risky call?
Grospellier: No, of course that wasn’t the only reason. I had been sitting at the same table with him for two days already, so I had already seen him do a thing or two. Whenever he made small re-raises, he always showed Q-Q, K-K or A-A. The fact that he now made a large reraise, all in, surprised me. Maybe he wanted me to make a bad call. But when I looked at his face I was pretty sure I had a coinflip. Maybe he would have still pushed with 9-9, but with 10-10 he wouldn’t have done so. Furthermore, I was the chipleader, and all these things combined resulted in me making the call. I was not surprised that I was ahead with more than 55% [odds to win the hand].
PN: Have all these results changed your view on poker?
Grospellier: No, I still play pretty much the same, but I do try and improve all the time. The only thing that changed might be that I am now more confident that I am on the right track. This might lead to some other players being more intimidated when playing against me, which is a good thing when playing tournaments, so I’m quite happy with that. On the other hand, there are still many players who just want to be in a pot against me. I just need to adjust to this, but I believe I have more advantages than disadvantages because of it.
PN: Was the WPT easier for you than the EPT? At EPT events you seem to deal with a lot of players who are used to playing online and are more used to aggression than players at the WPT, where you find more old-fashioned live players who play more passive.
Grospellier: The structure of the WPT is much better than that of the EPT. Players have more chips and the levels take longer. You don’t need to gamble as much in WPT events. EPT events go a lot faster and therefore you often need to gamble more. So in that sense it doesn’t really have anything to do with the kind of players. I also played relatively tight during the WPT.
PN: There was once a time when you hadn’t yet played poker but were playing StarCraft. Can you compare the respect you got back then with the acknowledgement from poker nowadays?
Grospellier: I was very famous in Korea. Now, because of poker, I get respect all over the world. Although the respect might have been bigger in Korea, in the end it was only one country.
Poker players obviously have more money, and if people look at me now, they look at the money I make. That’s how I get my respect, by the money I win. There was not that much money in video games. It was very hard to get by with what I made there. Therefore, in video games you got respected for how good you were.
It is also a lot harder to be successful in video games than in poker. With poker you can be successful and get by after one year of training. If you want to make a living from it, you only need to look up the games with players who are worse than you. Then you win more and more. With video games you need to belong to the top three, or at least the top ten of the world in order to make a living from it. This is obviously much more difficult.
PN: You have accomplished so much in poker… does it make it more interesting to return to video games? Or is that no longer an option for you?
Grospellier: Well, I still don’t know all there is to know. When playing poker tournaments, there is always a certain amount of luck involved. The challenge for me in poker is still to defeat the aspect of luck, haha. But I will play StarCraft 2 when it comes out. It will be released by the end of the year, and it could be that I will play two tournaments just for the fun of it, but not as much as I played the first one. With poker you just have a lot more freedom than you do when you’re a professional gamer. Gaming takes up a lot of your time, and can also be quite monotonous to be honest.
PN: When did you actually start playing computer games?
Grospellier: When I was three. My brother got a computer. I played against him and was actually better than him from the start. When I went to high school I started to get internet. Playing against the computer was fun, but playing against other people was obviously a lot more interesting and difficult. It’s a completely different game, and I really enjoyed it. When I heard that Korea was organising big tournaments, I decided to go there. I won a couple of qualifying tournaments in France and ended second in the championship. After that I received a sponsoring deal and everything kind of went well from the start. I enjoyed the culture there, the life, the language. I can still speak Korean, although I can’t understand everything anymore.
PN: During this time you also met the Dutch poker players Victor Goossens and Lex Veldhuis. You guys are still friends?
Grospellier: Goossens came to Korea for half a year; that’s when we met. He was also a good player, but he had a harder time in Korea than I did. We still got a long very well. It was more or less because of him that I ended up playing poker. There were a lot of StarCraft players in those days that stepped over to poker, for example Rekrul, James Mackey, RainKhan, Ryan Daut and RaSZi (Veldhuis).
PN: How is your bench press bet with RaSZi going?
Grospellier: I’m training for it. My manager is also an ex-professional tennis coach, so he helps me train. I really want to win this one and I hope to be able to beat Lex. I lost the last two prop bets that we had, one weight-loss bet and one bet where Lex was only allowed to play $3/$6. But of course I had no control over these things. Lex was just able to do it. Now he will encounter some opposition, so now we’ll see who’s better.
PN: [What about] a sit-’n'-go player who suddenly starts playing live heads-up cash games? It seems you’ve become pretty good at those.
Grospellier: It’s hard to play heads-up live. Casinos often don’t feel like opening up a table for it, and when tournaments are running, they often don’t have the room. But yes, I do enjoy it. I’ve started to specialize in it more and more. Playing live heads-up is very difficult, even though I practiced a lot online. Heads-up games lead to much more action and you can exert more control over your opponent. It’s fun because you end up with a lot of marginal situations where you can’t just fold your hand.
PN: What do you enjoy more? You play a lot of heads-up sit-’n'-goes online. Do you prefer playing cash games or sit-’n'-goes?
Grospellier: I prefer playing cash games, because you sit deeper and you can play more hands. In sit-’n'-goes you sit less deep and the blinds increase relatively quickly. It’s a completely different game. In cash games you also need to be more aggressive, and you can also win more.
PN: You had been playing nine-man sit-’n'-goes. Why did you step over to heads-up sit-’n'-goes?
Grospellier: It’s more fun, and on top of that the nine-player sit-’n'-goes aren’t good to play anymore. The skill-level of the players has increased too much. Furthermore, the payout structure isn’t great and you can’t really adjust your game anymore because at the highest stakes, every player completely masters the maths.
PN: The moment you started playing heads-up sit-’n'-goes, was that when you set yourself the challenge to become the first PokerStars Supernova Elite?
Grospellier: I started just before that, yes. Because of the sidebet I then started playing more and more, because this was giving me a lot more FPPs (PokerStars Frequent Player Points). That was the main reason.
PN: During that period you lost a lot of money, but according to rumors you won back quite a bit as a result of the sidebets for the challenge. To what extent is this true?
Grospellier: I did lose a lot. I wasn’t good enough yet, but I also had an outrageous rhythm. At some point I played for 24 hours a day for a whole week, with short 15-minute naps every four hours. Of course that wasn’t great for my game and I played very bad as a result. By the end of the week I was playing so [expletive] bad, so I decided to get some proper sleep. [Still,] everything I lost, I managed to win back through the bonuses I received from PokerStars. You receive quite a few rewards as a Supernova Elite.
Editor’s Note: The original version of this interview appeared on nl.PokerNews.com, our Dutch site.
It may have happened nine months ago, but it still clearly weighs on Scotty Nguyen’s mind.
“I hated it,” said Nguyen, when he watched the now infamous episode on ESPN where he won the presitigious $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship at the World Series last year. As if that sentence doesn’t adequately describe his emotions on the topic, he repeated himself: “I hated it.”
Most successful players look back fondly at their big tournament wins, reminiscing and embracing in the highlights of their victories. But when Nguyen’s H.O.R.S.E. win comes on TV now, he changes the channel.
Nguyen, the only person to win both the main event and the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship at the World Series, continues his interview with Adam Schoenfeld and Diego Cordovez on this week’s episode of the The Scoop on Card Player TV (sponsored by Full Tilt). It is part two of a three-part interview.
Nguyen wasn’t shy about revisiting the controversy that has generated a great deal of scorn for the former world champ, describing where it all went wrong last summer. He talked about his raw desire to win the tournament, his desire to entertain his fans, and how he just got lost in the moment.
Nguyen also reflects on losing your cool at a poker table, and how important it is for him to literally get away from the table and take a few minutes to regain his composure — even if that means losing some chips to the blinds.
The third part of the interview will air next week on Card Player TV.
Thomas “Boku87″ BoekhoffYou’ve read poker book after poker book. You’ve honed your game at the virtual tables and now find yourself earning a living playing online poker for hours at home.
But the grind has become, well, a grind.
It happens to the best of players, but instead of taking a break, some have found a way to spice up the game and, like true action junkies, have the potential to pick up even more money on the side.
So what’s the cure? Prop bets or challenges.
Generally it’s a scenario in which a player has to earn a certain amount of money playing a specific kind of game in an allotted time frame.
One example is Thomas “Boku87″ Boekhoff’s recent successful challenge. He proposed that he could turn $100 into a $10,000 bankroll in 15 days playing only low-limit sit-and-gos.
He started at $1.10 buy-in sngs and could only move up as high as $16 sngs as he progressed.
Boku87 was willing to bet up to $20,000 that he could do it, and was setting the odds at 3:1.
This wasn’t Boekhoff’s first challenge, but it was his first challenge with that much money involved.
“When I started playing poker, I claimed in November ’06 I could make $25k [by] Christmas,” Boekhoff’s said. “I don’t even remember what my bankroll was at that time, but I did not succeed as I only reached $13k or so, and the side action was only $100.”
The money involved in his latest challenge was much more. Players interested in the action were in for $36,000.
“I thought playing micros would be fun, and I thought most people would underestimate my edge in these games and also underestimate the volume I can put in,” Boekhoff said. “So I thought I might make some decent money through this prop bet.”
Make money he did as he accomplished the challenge on Day 14.
Grayson “spacegravy” Physioc wasn’t quite as lucky with his most recent challenge, but it was his first prop bet to make $25,000 in one month playing $60 sit-and-gos that made him a well-known name in the online poker community.
“The first challenge, I was just sitting around with a couple other pro sng players talking about how much it was possible to make at the $60s in a month. I told them that I think I could make 25k pretty easily and they said I was crazy,” Physioc said.
He posted the claim in the 2+2 poker forum and instantly got $25k in side bets against him.
“I won the $25k in just 21 days, and from there really enjoyed the incentive of having to really grind to make way more than I would have in a normal month,” Physioc said.
His second challenge came about similarly. He got into an argument with a regular he plays with at the $225 level.
“He said it was ridiculous that I won the $25k prop bet so easily, and I told him I could do $40k now but would never get action on it,” Physioc said. “He told me to post the bet on 2+2, and I would get action.”
Physioc was nearly proven right as only $5k in side bets were registered, but at the last minute an anonymous person transferred $30k and about 10 others sent $15k more.
He’s probably wishing those last minute bets hadn’t come in, because Physioc ended up having to call this one a loss.
“The main reason why I quit the bet was because I thought my chances of winning were almost impossible after the first two weeks,” he said.
“It was way more +ev for me to move back up in stakes to my normal games where my hourly rate is higher than continuing with a bet I thought was impossible to win.”
Prop bet preparation
Not all the prop bets are going to be made, so players generally aren’t going to want to make a claim without some idea of how likely they are to make it.
Boku87 said that he looked up his ROI and profit for each level before undertaking his bet.
Spacegravy said he didn’t do any calculations when he first made his claims for each of his prop bets.
“After I got the action, I ran a couple calculations to make sure it was possible,” he said.
For the first prop bet, he was expecting his ROI to be around 8%, which would mean he’d be making around $4-$5 per table.
“I was planning to play about 30 tables an hour, so expected for my hourly rate to be around $130,” Physioc said. “That would mean I have to play about 200 hours for the month, or 50 hours a week.”
His plan was to play about 70 hours per week until he was ahead of pace.
“Similar calculations went into the second prop bet except I needed to win $40k this time,” he said.
Players also sometimes take into consideration personal issues that could interfere with play when they set up the terms of their bets.
Boekhoff said he’d been asked about that before he started his challenge.
“I am a very optimistic person and assumed nothing would happen, so I made no extra rule for that case,” Boekhoff said. “This was probably a one-time thing, so I was not too concerned about it.”
Physioc chose to be prepared.
“In the terms of both prop bets, it was stated that if I became seriously ill during the challenge or a life threatening situation happened to a family member, the bet would be called off and everyone would be returned their money,” he said.
The appeal of the action
Prop bets are popular both to the players proposing them and the other online players who want to see how they play out.
Boekhoff pointed out that there’s a certain fascination with seeing someone turn a relatively low amount of money into something big.
“$100 is something that basically anyone can deposit,” he said of his own challenge. “I think seeing that it is possible to turn this rather small amount of money into $10k by just playing low limits in only two weeks amazing a lot of people because it appears as if everyone can do that.”
Physioc also pointed out that poker players are very competitive just like in any other sport. He said it’s fun to see what people are capable of accomplishing.
It also doesn’t hurt that there’s a lot of money to be made on the side as well. Players aren’t grinding just for the profits from the tables; there’s potential for lots of extra money from the side bets to make that grinding even more worthwhile.
The European Parliament is worried about your data sitting dormant on websites of all kinds and last week began formal discussions to further regulate personal data on the Internet. Greek Member of the European Parliament Stavros Lambrinidis is preparing a report for a plenary session in Strasbourg calling for “more stringent and efficient means of user data protection.” Australia, China, Singapore, and Japan also had similar legislative stirrings in recent weeks.
The industry spent a dozen years fighting US Congressman Ed Markey’s (D-MA) efforts to regulate the Internet. Markey, though, just passed the chairmanship of the House Subcommittee responsible for telecommunications, technology and the Internet to one of the House’s most tech-savvy Congressmen, Rick Boucher (D-VA).
As the 1960 boatlift Cubans in Miami claissically lamented, “We prayed for the overthrow of Batista; then we got Castro!” High on Boucher’s list of priorities is a bill to regulate privacy of Internet users. Of most concern to online gaming businesses will be a specific “opt-in” clause for users before data can be shared with other providers.
Why the sudden activity? Congress, Parliament and most governmental bodies seize their opportunities from headlines. This has been quite a few weeks with scandals providing fuel. NBC News reported recently that a back door existed in many popular music file-sharing programs that could allow hackers into one’s computer to download tax forms, university applications and personal bank account information.
Recently, Minnesota Senate candidate Norm Coleman’s website allowed anyone to download his entire donor database, including addresses and credit card numbers. MSNBC’s interviewed data security expert Adria Richards, who found the security issue and reported it on her blog. The Coleman gaffe could crimp his plans to continue his challenge against Al Franken for that long-disputed Senate seat. Could you imagine a solicitation letter for Coleman’s legal challenge fund including the line, “Sorry, please send more money and by the way, you need to get a new credit card?”
Elsewhere, Facebook was thrown into a crisis over a minor change in its website Terms and Conditions (T&C) allowing them to keep your data indefinitely — mostly because it is too difficult to erase from 115 million users. So loud was the uproar that they changed it back to their original terms.
This type of change could affect your poker/gaming sites. What can you do to protect your data already out there on the Web? If you cease doing business with a gaming site, make sure to delete your account and all personal info. Write to the company and ask them to delete your account and all personal information. Same for the payment agencies they use.
No matter where you play, change and update your info regularly. Don’t automatically store passwords; use a simple password saver program and auto-generator.
Examine what data is stored on your ‘my account’ page and is no longer needed and can be deleted. I’ve left five or six online poker sites during the last three years and never thought much about the issue of data protection; my personal info, including a faxed copy of my passport’s main page, sits in one site’s office.
Also, check your computer’s msconfig file periodically to see what programs start automatically and run all the time. Aside from improving speed and performance of your machine, there is no need for a lot of these programs to run 24/7 and some of these are where trojans and other malware programs can attach themselves and compromise your files.
A change of this magnitude could, conceivably, affect security on the operator side, making it more difficult for sites to find bots, colluders and multi-accounting players, and thereby make it more difficult to keep the online game safe and fair for all. In the UK, data-protection laws are interpreted with such strict, minute detail that even trying to arrange a furniture delivery, if my wife purchased it, is impossible, because, “They must speak to the person who placed the order.”
With the US, EU and Asia looking independently at the issue, any result will have little impact on those who steal data for a living; they will simply find another way. It could, though, create a confusing maze of tougher standards for all and would be difficult to maintain and implement.
For an industry deeply involved in a fight to overthrow UIGEA, this issue is among the thorniest. Since Congress, Parliament and regulators are not known for taking smart action, this is one fight to watch and weigh in on early.
Editor’s note: Contributing columnist Denis Campbell brings an independent and experienced eye to poker’s political scene. Campbell has worked closely in the past with former Cabinet Secretaries in the Carter and Clinton administrations, Ambassadors and members of Congress. He offers commentary on US and UK politics for the BBC and Huffington Post, and is currently the editor-in-chief of UK Progressive Magazine. Here, Denis offers his insights on matters affecting poker. Denis’ views do not necessarily reflect those of PokerNews.
Thomas “Boku87″ BoekhoffYou’ve read poker book after poker book. You’ve honed your game at the virtual tables and now find yourself earning a living playing online poker for hours at home.
But the grind has become, well, a grind.
It happens to the best of players, but instead of taking a break, some have found a way to spice up the game and, like true action junkies, have the potential to pick up even more money on the side.
So what’s the cure? Prop bets or challenges.
Generally it’s a scenario in which a player has to earn a certain amount of money playing a specific kind of game in an allotted time frame.
One example is Thomas “Boku87″ Boekhoff’s recent successful challenge. He proposed that he could turn $100 into a $10,000 bankroll in 15 days playing only low-limit sit-and-gos.
He started at $1.10 buy-in sngs and could only move up as high as $16 sngs as he progressed.
Boku87 was willing to bet up to $20,000 that he could do it, and was setting the odds at 3:1.
This wasn’t Boekhoff’s first challenge, but it was his first challenge with that much money involved.
“When I started playing poker, I claimed in November ’06 I could make $25k [by] Christmas,” Boekhoff’s said. “I don’t even remember what my bankroll was at that time, but I did not succeed as I only reached $13k or so, and the side action was only $100.”
The money involved in his latest challenge was much more. Players interested in the action were in for $36,000.
“I thought playing micros would be fun, and I thought most people would underestimate my edge in these games and also underestimate the volume I can put in,” Boekhoff said. “So I thought I might make some decent money through this prop bet.”
Make money he did as he accomplished the challenge on Day 14.
Grayson “spacegravy” Physioc wasn’t quite as lucky with his most recent challenge, but it was his first prop bet to make $25,000 in one month playing $60 sit-and-gos that made him a well-known name in the online poker community.
“The first challenge, I was just sitting around with a couple other pro sng players talking about how much it was possible to make at the $60s in a month. I told them that I think I could make 25k pretty easily and they said I was crazy,” Physioc said.
He posted the claim in the 2+2 poker forum and instantly got $25k in side bets against him.
“I won the $25k in just 21 days, and from there really enjoyed the incentive of having to really grind to make way more than I would have in a normal month,” Physioc said.
His second challenge came about similarly. He got into an argument with a regular he plays with at the $225 level.
“He said it was ridiculous that I won the $25k prop bet so easily, and I told him I could do $40k now but would never get action on it,” Physioc said. “He told me to post the bet on 2+2, and I would get action.”
Physioc was nearly proven right as only $5k in side bets were registered, but at the last minute an anonymous person transferred $30k and about 10 others sent $15k more.
He’s probably wishing those last minute bets hadn’t come in, because Physioc ended up having to call this one a loss.
“The main reason why I quit the bet was because I thought my chances of winning were almost impossible after the first two weeks,” he said.
“It was way more +ev for me to move back up in stakes to my normal games where my hourly rate is higher than continuing with a bet I thought was impossible to win.”
Prop bet preparation
Not all the prop bets are going to be made, so players generally aren’t going to want to make a claim without some idea of how likely they are to make it.
Boku87 said that he looked up his ROI and profit for each level before undertaking his bet.
Spacegravy said he didn’t do any calculations when he first made his claims for each of his prop bets.
“After I got the action, I ran a couple calculations to make sure it was possible,” he said.
For the first prop bet, he was expecting his ROI to be around 8%, which would mean he’d be making around $4-$5 per table.
“I was planning to play about 30 tables an hour, so expected for my hourly rate to be around $130,” Physioc said. “That would mean I have to play about 200 hours for the month, or 50 hours a week.”
His plan was to play about 70 hours per week until he was ahead of pace.
“Similar calculations went into the second prop bet except I needed to win $40k this time,” he said.
Players also sometimes take into consideration personal issues that could interfere with play when they set up the terms of their bets.
Boekhoff said he’d been asked about that before he started his challenge.
“I am a very optimistic person and assumed nothing would happen, so I made no extra rule for that case,” Boekhoff said. “This was probably a one-time thing, so I was not too concerned about it.”
Physioc chose to be prepared.
“In the terms of both prop bets, it was stated that if I became seriously ill during the challenge or a life threatening situation happened to a family member, the bet would be called off and everyone would be returned their money,” he said.
The appeal of the action
Prop bets are popular both to the players proposing them and the other online players who want to see how they play out.
Boekhoff pointed out that there’s a certain fascination with seeing someone turn a relatively low amount of money into something big.
“$100 is something that basically anyone can deposit,” he said of his own challenge. “I think seeing that it is possible to turn this rather small amount of money into $10k by just playing low limits in only two weeks amazing a lot of people because it appears as if everyone can do that.”
Physioc also pointed out that poker players are very competitive just like in any other sport. He said it’s fun to see what people are capable of accomplishing.
It also doesn’t hurt that there’s a lot of money to be made on the side as well. Players aren’t grinding just for the profits from the tables; there’s potential for lots of extra money from the side bets to make that grinding even more worthwhile.
The nine survivors at the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at Caesars Atlantic City may not have been household names, but that doesn’t mean the field was weak. With one WSOP bracelet winner, the 2008 UltimateBet Aruba Poker Classic champion and more than half a dozen WSOP final tables among them, these nine competitors made up an extremely solid field. After eight hours of final-table play, Canadian Samuel Chartier bested countryman John Nixon heads up to claim the gold championship ring, the WSOP Main Event entry package, and the $322,944 top prize.
While Alex Bolotin took the chip lead into the final table, it was Frank Vizza who stormed out of the gate early to grab the top spot on the leader board and add a couple of notches to his gunbelt along the way. His first victim was David Zeitlin, who busted in ninth place for $20,184. After Vizza raised from the cutoff, Zeitlin moved all in over the top with from the big blind. Vizza snap-called with , and the board ran out to send Zeitlin packing early.
Day 1 chip leader Chris Klodnicki was the next player to make a stand against Vizza’s aggression, and again it was a battle of the pocket pairs. After raising with no opposition for several hands in a row, Vizza found an opponent when Klodnicki shoved back into him with pocket jacks. Vizza once again had the goods, and snap-called with pocket kings. The board missed both players, and Vizza’s kings held up as Klodnicki picked up $30,276 for eighth place.
After that early flurry of big confrontations, play slowed significantly as the competitors were content to pick their spots. Jason Young picked his spot in a hand against eventual champion Samuel Chartier when he raised preflop with . Chartier was the lone caller, and he then moved all in on the flop. Young quickly called with his overpair, as Chartier showed for overcards and the flush draw. The peeled off right away on the turn, and Young was drawing dead. As the meaningless hit the river, Young headed to the cage to collect his seventh-place money ($40,368).
Matt Brady was eliminated in sixth place ($50,460) by Chartier, but it was Frank Vizza who did the damage. Vizza three-bet John Nixon from the button, and Brady moved all in over the top from the big blind. Nixon decided discretion was the better part of valor, and Vizza made the easy call with . Brady’s needed help, but none came on the board. After doubling up Vizza, Brady’s stack was on life support. Just a couple of hands later, Chartier pulled the plug when he called Brady’s all-in with . Brady’s looked good on the flop, but the turn gave Chartier more outs to work with. The prescient Brady said, “You got the spade,” as he looked at Chartier’s hand, and as if called for, the landed on the river to give Chartier the four-flush and show Brady the exit.
Alex Bolotin came into the final table as the big stack, but never really got his game on track in the final day of the event. In his last hand, he open-shoved with , and big stack Frank Vizza was the lone caller, showing . Bolotin fell further behind on the flop. He picked up a pair on the turn when the fell, giving him a few outs to work with. The river wasn’t one of them, and Bolotin was done in fifth place ($60,552).
Michael Michnik exited in fourth ($70,644) in a rough hand against Samuel Chartier. After raising preflop with , Michnik moved all in over the top of Chartier’s three-bet. Chartier quickly called, and showed for the same hand. Chartier was free rolling after the flop, and the turn put Michnik in danger of elimination. As the landed on the river to give Chartier the flush, Michnik could only look on in disgust, then shake his opponents’ hands as he headed to the exit.
There was no elimination in the biggest pot of the night, but it set the stage for the eventual winner of the gold ring. With blinds at 16,000/32,000 and a 4,000 ante, Frank Vizza raised preflop to 100,000. Samuel Chartier re-raised to 246,000, and Vizza called. The flop came down , and Chartier led out for 200,000. Vizza sat for a moment before raising to 700,000. After a couple minutes’ consideration, Chartier moved all in over the top. This prompted Vizza to go deep in the tank, contemplating every possible outcome of the hand. Finally after more than five minutes in thought, Vizza folded, giving up his chip lead to Chartier just before the dinner break.
Things went no better for Vizza after dinner, as he quickly doubled up John Nixon on the second hand back from break. With just a fraction of his former stack, Vizza then called a preflop raise from John Nixon a few hands later to put his tournament life on the line. Vizza held a slight lead on the flop, as his led Nixon’s on the board. The on the turn gave Nixon more outs, and the on the river gave him the pair to send Vizza to the rail in third place ($90,828).
After their collective decimation of Frank Vizza’s stack, Samuel Chartier and John Nixon settled in for heads-up play with Chartier holding the chip lead. It only took a few hands to decide the title, with Nixon unable to overcome Chartier’s lead. In the final hand, Nixon raised preflop from the button, then moved all in over the top of Chartier’s re-raise. Chartier quickly called and showed , dominating Nixon’s . Chartier took a commanding lead on the flop, making two pair to Nixon’s one. The on the turn gave additional outs to chop, but the on the river was no help for Nixon, who earned $177,619 for his runner-up performance.
Samuel Chartier bested a field of 207 opponents to claim his $322,944 top prize, plus an entry into the WSOP Main Event and the gold Circuit Championship ring. He bested a field that included some of the biggest names in poker, and prevailed over a tough final table to do it.
The World Poker Tour is growing again and taking poker players to Venice and Marrakech in upcoming months.
Chili Poker and WPT Enterprises announced they were partnering up to take the WPT to Marrakech, and the WPT is partnering with bwin Poker to bring an event to Venice this year too.
World Poker Tour episodes have broadcast in over 165 countries and territories around the globe, but its brick-and-mortar tournaments have primarily been offered in North America.
The tour had previously had some overseas events, but in the last year, it cut back its tour. The WPT clarified that they reduced the schedule in response to the industry and player feedback.
“There was simply too much going on and we wanted to give players more opportunity to participate in satellites and other events, drive increased field sizes, richer prize pools (so quality vs. quantity),” said Lyndsay LaGree, WPT Enterprises public relations senior manager. “It has proven to be a very positive move!”
Now the WPT is taking steps to expand its global footprint and increase our tournament offering for players overseas through strategic partnerships in Europe and surrounding countries.
First the WPT made a deal with Chili Poker to bring the WPT to the Casino de Marrakech in Morocco in October.
“We’re very glad to be partnering with our friends at Chili Poker – a poker that is steadily growing in importance on the international scene – to offer WPT tournament in Morocco,” said Steve Lipscomb, WPT founder, president and CEO.
“Our goal is to bring value to our partners and WPTE shareholders as we expand our global footprint.”
The agreement between Chili Poker and the WPT is a three-year deal that will include an annual televised broadcast around the WPT Marrakech events.
Chili Poker and other poker rooms on the iPoker Network are also authorized to host online qualifiers to send players to the WPT Marrakech. Chili Poker will start its qualifiers April 9.
Players who are looking for a poker adventure a little sooner can also now look forward to a WPT stop in Venice, Italy, in May.
The WPT has partnered with bwin Poker to bring the tour to Venice May 6-10 at the Casino di Venezia. It will be filmed for broadcast via Web-TV on bwin.com.
The main event will feature a €4,400 buy-in with the winner receiving the top cash prize as well as a WPT Venice bracelet and a $25,000 seat in the 2010 WPT Championship.
“We’re thrilled to launch our first ever brick-and-mortar WPT tournament offering in Italy,” Lipscomb said.
“bwin is a strong partner with the right market position in the region. We look forward to working with them to bring this event and the WPT brand to poker players in Italy and Europe.”
LaGree echoed Lipscomb saying that poker sites operating legally in Europe and beyond are well-positioned to make these events successful.
“WPT is obviously a strong brand/partner with expertise in tournament execution and production, while certain sites have key targeted marketing abilities and understanding of the various markets,” she said. “These are truly strategic partnerships, and you will likely see this format roll out in other areas.”
Related Articles:
- Deeb trouble at WPT invitational
- Suckouts galore for LAPC champ Cimpan
Poker’s largest and most prestigious series, the World Series of Poker, returns to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas this summer in its 40th annual gathering of poker’s biggest names. The “gearing up” process continues for what’s poised to be the biggest WSOP ever, with the release of the official event schedule, the announcement of tourney structures, and the opening of pre-registration among the happenings of recent days. WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel recently took time out from his busy schedule to discuss with PokerNews many of the changes slated for the 2009 WSOP. Here’s what Effel had to say:
PokerNews: What new amenities and changes to structure might be in store for players at the 2009 World Series of Poker?
Jack Effel: There will be an increased table capacity; we’re going to have approximately 300 tournament tables. We’re going to be in three different tournament rooms, the same as we were last year. The Amazon Room is back, along with the media center, the ESPN feature table, and live-action games. There will be approximately 156 tables in [the Amazon Room], give or take ten, depending on how the staging and props for everything all pans out once stuff starts getting moved in.
Last year we had the Tropical Room as our satellite room. It was such a success, and players loved having their own area to play satellites… we ended up not having enough tables. We had 23 tables last year in the Tropical Room. This year we’ve moved them over to the Brasilia Room. There’s 94 tables in there, 48 that we’re going to dedicate to single-table satellites. Obviously if we get bigger demand, there’s 46 more tables there, given that they’re not being taken up by something else. Those numbers might change based on when we start building the cages and extending some things out, but we’re looking at 90-94 tables in there.
We’re excited about that room, excited about giving the single-table satellite players a bigger area, more tables, more opportunity to play the satellites they love to play. We think that’ll be a huge success. The remainder of the room will be used for tournament overflow, along with afternoon and nightly events – the mega-satellites, nightly tournaments and that sort of thing. And then there’s the Miranda room, which is our third tournament area this year. We’re going to have approximately 56 tables in there, depending on what it looks like when everything gets in there as well. Between all the areas we put ourselves at about 300 tables. The Miranda Room will be tournament overflow; we’ll also run nightly tournaments in there as well. It’s going to be very comfortable and spacious. We’ll have 20-25 more tables than last year, at least.
PN: Will the Miranda Room then be the Day 2 restart area for ongoing events?
Effel: We’d like to get a feel for the logistics. Sometimes certain events draw more than you anticipate and you have to make some arrangements. Last year the Brasilia Room was a good place to put the restarts, but what we were going to do this year was keep all the restarts in the orange section [in the Amazon Room], right next to the media center, and that’s where all the Day 2′s will play down. We’re talking about a secondary final-table area inside the Amazon Room as well, like we have every year. We don’t have all the details as yet, what it’s going to look like; it depends on the ESPN stage and all those things. We want to keep all the final tables and restarts in Amazon this year.
PN: With pre-registration now open, are there any changes with the process for the 2009 WSOP?
Effel: The pre-registration process is the same as it was last year. Players can go to our worldseriesofpoker.com web site, download a pre-registration form for the event of their choice, and send it in along with their cashier’s check or wire transfer. Then, when they show up at the World Series of Poker, they would proceed to “Will Call,” which is our Total Rewards desk down in the convention area. At that point they sign their player-release forms, draw down their funds, get their tournament receipts, and go to their table. Everything is already printed out and waiting for them. The process was very good last year – no customer complaints, players got in and out really quick – last year we did about 4,000 pre-registrations for the various events.
The other addition to that is that if [players] want to pre-register, we want [players] to do it as soon as possible once we’ve opened up, because two weeks prior to the start of any event we cut registration off, to give time for the funds to clear, the paperwork to get here, for accounting to go through all the process and all of those things. We’re definitely solid on our process for getting these guys in, pre-registered, and save them the wait from standing in line.
PN: Let’s jump over to tournament structures. When people look at the structures this year, the first thing they’ll notice is the jump in starting chips from two times to three times the buy-in.
Effel: That is correct, and really our overriding goal was to give the players more value than ever before. In my opinion these are the best structures ever used at the World Series of Poker. I’ve been involved with the WSOP since 2005. Prior to 2005 and even into 2006, that’s when the transition began from two-day events to three-day events. It took a while to figure out exactly how much play you needed in these events over the course of three days. We got a little better… and a little better… and in 2008 we were really good. This year, I think we’re going to hit a home run.
Yes, the chips are three times the buy-in as opposed to two times. What you’ll see this year is that none of the levels have been taken out of the no-limit events. The limit events will have additional big blinds that they didn’t have last and more big bets than they had last year. Without going into the details, it’s pretty cool. The higher buy-ins have also been tweaked as well to give additional play. You’ll see a vast improvement in the structures and the additional levels and play for the players.
Let’s talk about three very special events at the World Series of Poker that I’m very excited for this year. These three events are usually the only events certain players get to play; they come out here for two or three days, they play in the event, and that’s their World Series of Poker experience. We wanted to make sure that these guys got as much value as we possibly could give them, as much play as we could give them, and we really want them to have a great time. [The three are] the Ladies Event, the Seniors Event, and the opening-weekend $1,000 Stimulus Special. We know that the ecomony’s tough right now, and we wanted to make sure that poker players are getting the expected value that they should, especially from the biggest poker tournament on the planet. The $1,000 buy-ins, they’re going to have a slightly better structure in the beginning; like the $1,500 event, they’re going to get 120 big blinds, compared to 40, which is what they got last year. Basically, the structure for the $1,000 events is identical to the $1,500 events we had last year, except it also has the 25/25 level and the 75/150 level. I think the players in these events are going to love them. They’re going to get plenty of play at an affordable price; we really hope that they have a great experience this year.
In Part 2 of this interview, WSOP TD Jack Effel talks about the demise of WSOP rebuy tourneys, some of the special events in the 2009 WSOP, and the return of the four-month break for the final table of the Main Event.
The World Poker Tour is growing again and taking poker players to Venice and Marrakech in upcoming months.
Chili Poker and WPT Enterprises announced they were partnering up to take the WPT to Marrakech, and the WPT is partnering with bwin Poker to bring an event to Venice this year too.
World Poker Tour episodes have broadcast in over 165 countries and territories around the globe, but its brick-and-mortar tournaments have primarily been offered in North America.
The tour had previously had some overseas events, but in the last year, it cut back its tour. The WPT clarified that they reduced the schedule in response to the industry and player feedback.
“There was simply too much going on and we wanted to give players more opportunity to participate in satellites and other events, drive increased field sizes, richer prize pools (so quality vs. quantity),” said Lyndsay LaGree, WPT Enterprises public relations senior manager. “It has proven to be a very positive move!”
Now the WPT is taking steps to expand its global footprint and increase our tournament offering for players overseas through strategic partnerships in Europe and surrounding countries.
First the WPT made a deal with Chili Poker to bring the WPT to the Casino de Marrakech in Morocco in October.
“We’re very glad to be partnering with our friends at Chili Poker – a poker that is steadily growing in importance on the international scene – to offer WPT tournament in Morocco,” said Steve Lipscomb, WPT founder, president and CEO.
“Our goal is to bring value to our partners and WPTE shareholders as we expand our global footprint.”
The agreement between Chili Poker and the WPT is a three-year deal that will include an annual televised broadcast around the WPT Marrakech events.
Chili Poker and other poker rooms on the iPoker Network are also authorized to host online qualifiers to send players to the WPT Marrakech. Chili Poker will start its qualifiers April 9.
Players who are looking for a poker adventure a little sooner can also now look forward to a WPT stop in Venice, Italy, in May.
The WPT has partnered with bwin Poker to bring the tour to Venice May 6-10 at the Casino di Venezia. It will be filmed for broadcast via Web-TV on bwin.com.
The main event will feature a €4,400 buy-in with the winner receiving the top cash prize as well as a WPT Venice bracelet and a $25,000 seat in the 2010 WPT Championship.
“We’re thrilled to launch our first ever brick-and-mortar WPT tournament offering in Italy,” Lipscomb said.
“bwin is a strong partner with the right market position in the region. We look forward to working with them to bring this event and the WPT brand to poker players in Italy and Europe.”
LaGree echoed Lipscomb saying that poker sites operating legally in Europe and beyond are well-positioned to make these events successful.
“WPT is obviously a strong brand/partner with expertise in tournament execution and production, while certain sites have key targeted marketing abilities and understanding of the various markets,” she said. “These are truly strategic partnerships, and you will likely see this format roll out in other areas.”
Related Articles:
- Deeb trouble at WPT invitational
- Suckouts galore for LAPC champ Cimpan
Hey. Welcome back. We're bringing back this weekly feature, Poker Plays with Pokerpeaker, where I go through my thought process of playing a hand and try to present 
some lessons along the way.
Because it's poker, I'll never say I played the hand perfectly. In fact, it's my hope to present hands where I believe I made mistakes, so we can both learn something them. Of course, I'll also give you some good hands, so you don't think I'm a complete idiot.
I am primarily a low-limit, no-limit or pot-limit player, and my three favorite games are Hold 'Em (of course), Omaha and Razz, so that's usually what you'll see here. I am not a math player, though I do know some basic percentages to help me figure pot odds. I am a winning player, mostly because I play small pots unless my hand warrants it, I pay attention to position and rarely, if ever, tilt.
OK, I think the best way to kick this off is with an Omaha hand because while Hold 'Em is certainly poker's most popular game, Omaha is its fastest-growing.
Why? Well, I've recently started playing a lot more Omaha because I'm tired of all the nits at Hold 'Em. It's 2009, and we're deep into the Unlawful Internet Enforcement Gaming Act and a crushing recession. All that means the players are more educated and unwilling to put all their chips in unless they have a great hand (a hand, in other words, that can beat yours). The fish are out there at the Hold 'Em tables but in much lower numbers these days.
However, few people at the lower limits know how to play Omaha well (and, to be honest, I'm one of them). They'll make the kind of mistakes Hold 'Em players were making back in the good old days of 4-5 years ago. They think hands that are golden in Hold 'Em, like sets, are golden in Omaha too. As my following hand shows, they aren't.
OK, I'm playing a six-handed, .10/.25 game at PokerStars. I've got K♣ – K♥ – J♣ – A[h}.
This is a hand worth raising in Omaha, and that's exactly what I plan to do. I'm also on the button, so I'll have position throughout the hand. Omaha, like Hold 'Em, is a lot more difficult to play out of position.
But someone already raises the pot, to .85, in first position. This is a six-handed game, and so first-position raises don't always mean what they would at a full table. But I'm willing to just call here.
Why wouldn't I re-raise? Well, you could here, definitely, but remember, this is pot-limit, not no-limit, so it's tough to re-raise to an amount that will drive out any callers. At this limit, I've found that most are willing to come along with anything.
Plus the first big mistake beginning Omaha players make is they overvalue big pairs. Yes K-K is an awesome hand in Hold 'Em, but in Omaha, if your kings don't improve after the flop, they're probably beat, especially if there's more than one other player in the hand.
I call, a third player calls, the blinds fold, the pot is $2.90 and we're three-handed for a flop of 3♠ – K♠ – 5♥.
Sweet. Right?
Well, kinda.
This is a classic situation in Omaha. You've got the best hand on the flop, for sure, but you have no redraws to a flush or a straight, so unless the board pairs, you might actually be behind!
Not only that, but, as usual in Omaha, there are obvious straight and flush draws out there. So unless the board pairs, we're most likely behind on the turn.
Someone bets the pot, $2.90. The other player calls, and I just call.
The 6♦ falls on the turn. The first player again bets the pot, $8.70. The second player calls. OK, that means I have enough to go all-in if I want to, as I had right around my buy-in of $25 in front of me when the hand started.
I go all-in. I really thought I was good here. I was a fool.
Both players call fast enough to break the sound barrier, and when the board does not pair on the river, one player shows a 2-4 for a straight, and the other player shows a 4-7 for the higher straight.
It's the third time that day that my top set goes down in Omaha.
Where did I go wrong? In Omaha, you have two choices when you have a great hand on the flop – like top two pair, a set or even a straight – but you're faced with a tough draw (or two) that can beat you.
I think either choice is correct.
The first choice is to keep the pot small. That means calling if you're facing a bet or betting half the pot if it's checked around to you. Checking isn't a terrible play here either.
It might seem like a weak play to just call when you've got a big hand in Omaha. But it's also a smart play because hands change every time another card drops in Omaha. You can almost guarantee that someone has the straight or the flush or a full house when the board completes a draw. And if that draw fills, you've got to fold your two pair, lower set or, sigh, even your top set.
But if you do decide to just call with hands like the ones I described above – in other words, like my set of Kings – you have to be willing to fold when a draw is completed on the turn and the players bet into you. Here an obvious straight fell, and the guy bet the pot and the other player called him. I needed to fold, and instead I jammed when I was far behind.
There's another way to play, too, and that's to push back and hope you can force players off the hand.
Had I wanted to play this way, I should have raised the players the pot on the flop and made them pay dearly to draw against me. Then I could have crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I don't know if either one of them would have folded. The pot odds would have been pretty good for them to call, which is the obvious downside to pushing with your hand in Omaha.
If you do this, you have to just hope that they don't call or they don't get there on the turn. But at least you know you're making them pay for their draws, and you're being aggressive, which is never a bad thing in poker.
I think the best play in these situations is to just call the flop or bet half the pot, and then, if the turn blanks out to any draws, jam as hard as you can on the turn. That way the chances are higher that players will fold because there's only one more card to come, and you're probably ahead of any draws anyway.
But I did the absolute worst thing in Omaha. I just called, and when the board completed an obvious draw, that's when I pushed. Since I called, I needed to fold on the turn. And if I planned to push, I needed to push on the flop. Don't ever just call and then push when the draw gets there and you're way behind on the turn or else you're fish food.
Omaha, in a way, is an easier game to play. If a draw gets there, and a player bets the pot, you can fold because he or she probably got there. You're never quite sure in Hold 'Em, but in Omaha, you can be a lot more sure.
But I didn't follow through on my plan. I didn't fold, and I paid the price dearly.
Fortunately for all of us, there are many other players at the lower limits in Omaha playing the same way right now.
It's up to us to take advantage of that before they know better.
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