World Series of Poker, 2014, Anyone Watching

The Game Room
1

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Well they are close to the start of the main event but the big newsmaker is Million Dollar Buy-In One Drop Tournament.

40 something players bought in for Million dollars each and about 70% of them have busted.

One Drop is going to be televised so I spoilering some of the results thus far.

But there are lot of familiar names still playing including Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Gabe “Welcome Back Kotter” Kaplan, and Antonio Esfandiari who is defending his title from two years ago. (he is the current chip leader).

Phil Ivey won a bracelet last week, earning him and Negreanu lots of side-bets as they bet even money that one of them would win a bracelet. They took on all comers at Even money at a $5K minimum.

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Will definitely be watching this summer! It’s my summer Tuesday ritual.

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Phil Hellmuth is at a 7 card stud final table going for another bracelet. Also at the final table is Doyle Brunson’s son Todd, and a 90 year old man who invented the “Transformer” Toy.

It is streaming nearly live, here.

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Henry Orenstein has his own wiki page.

He is a Holocaust survivor.

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Congrats on “Professor” Ben Yu FT’ing. Surprised to not see either Erig Rodaweg “Chips Ahoya”, or Christopher George “Ceegee” make it to Day 2.

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Day 2C in the Main event. Phil Ivey is one of, if not the, Chip Leaders after busting two players.

He has nearly 400,000 chips which is 13x starting stack. Average stack is probably about 90K as they have lost about 2/3 of the players.

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I always enjoy tracking the progress of past champions in the Main Event. If a previous winner could jag another Main Event bracelet in the 6000+ fields of the modern day, it would be quite an achievement.

Part way through day 3, only two remaining; Huck Seed ('96) and Chris Moneymaker ('03).

Progress of past champions in 2014 Main Event.

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Thanks Kelly, I was looking for that wiki page and I couldn’t find.

Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson is persona non grata (as we called it in Poker League) still in Poker.

I have no idea what Jesus’ or Howard Lederer’s status is anymore.

Turble, you reading this? Got any gossip on these two?

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(This thread is getting surprisingly little attention.)

November 9 now set. Biggest name has to be Mark Newhouse, who made the final table last year (finished 9th) making him the first player in the “poker boom” era to be there two years in a row.

Most interesting might be the lone amateur: William Pappaconstantinou (aka Billy Pappas), a world foosball (!) champion playing in his first WSOP.

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Yes, I was hoping to start a dialog but little responses.

Hope Billy Pappas doesn’t have to sign too many autographs. Thats a lot of letters.

And it is quite a feat to get to the final table twice in a row. with 6000+ entrants.

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Gotta believe he has a “shorthand” autograph.

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I’ve been away from Vegas for a long time now … completely out of the loop.

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Bump, to let anyone interested that the final table for the Main Event is tonight on ESPN2.

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Poker as a spectator sport - especially when the game is warped to accommodate an audience - is about one step from making tax audits a “pro sport.”

IMVHO, YMMV, etc. but poker takes place inside the players’ heads, and attempting to externalize that essential component is simply absurd.