>>WSOP<< 2010 World Series of Poker

The Game Room
81

Reading the blogs during the “bubble” period. A guy went busto with pocket aces (lost to pocket jacks) in 749th place. he still had 135K so he could have lasted about 60 more hands.

After he went out, a guy on a severe short stack and the Big blind got a walk. He had 4K after he posted his big blind which was enough for about 8 hands if he had folded.

THE Bubble guy lost with pocket queens to a guy with A-2 suited. The flop was A-A-2, so there was little suspense on the turn and the river.

They played hand-to-hand about 50 minutes. I didn’t see how many hands were played, but I would guess it wasn’t much more than 10 hands.

I have read on the blogs that players go “in the tank” for as long as 10 minutes. 10 minutes! Good gawd.

82

Another amazing story here:

“Former IRL and CART driver, Team PokerStars Pro Gualter Salles was down to just one single, solitary, lonely yellow 1,000 chip Wednesday afternoon at the World Series of Poker Main Event. Salles has since turned his 1,000 into 425,000.”

83

There is some truth to the old adage. All you need is a chip and a chair.

In a brick and mortar casino tournament, I called a fellow who was all-in right before a break. I had him out chipped by $25. he won, so I was left with one $25 chip. During the break, the were coloring up the $25 chips. Since you can get busted on a color-up I ended up with a $100 chip when I came back from break.

the antes were $100 so i was all-in on the first hand. I lost. So I needed a lot more than a chip and chair. IIRC, I had 10/9 suited, a playable hand.

84

Johnny Chan in top 10 in chips at the end of day five. Scotty Nguyen is in there somewhere too.

Either one will make for a great story if they can keep going deep. Scotty with a blown final table (almost) appearance needs to make up for that. And Johnny Chan has accomplished a few things in the poker world I hear and for him to survive even deeper, no matter the finish already adds a little heft to his meager resume.

85

pokernews has Scotty Nguyen has busted.

205 players left after Day 5. Avg stack (1.07 Million) has 25.5 orbits. 2k/8k/16k.

Johnny Chan is in 9th place in chips and IMO the the only “A-list” poker player still playing. I am sure ESPN desparately wants him to continue to play well.

I do not recognize a lot of names left in the field. Here’s a few: Jean Robert Bellande is still in the field at 946K chips. David Benyamin is one of the short stacks at 353K. Michael Mizrachi, Johnny Lodden and Phil Galfond are still in the field.

Chip leader (Evan Lamprea) has 3.3 times the avg stack and does not have a huge lead over #2.

86

Phil Galfond is probably the best player left by a large margin. Can’t say for sure since obviously I’m not familiar with the entire roster, could be some hidden geniuses in there.

87

Better than Johnny Chan? :dubious:

88

Almost certainly far better. I haven’t had a chance to analyze Chan personally outside of various tournament appearances, but to be honest, the guys who’ve been around the block all these years almost never have the fundamental intellectual skillset of the newer, more game theory oriented younger internet players. If they played HU4ROLLZ Galfond would almost certainly be the one walking away with the money.

89

Poker Stars if offering this free roll tonight FWIW.

I’m registered…starts in about 2 hrs…

90

Johnny Chan and** Phil Galfond **have busted out of the Main Event.

~136 players left. reviewing the chip counts, I did not see any names that are obviously female. However, I think Breeze Zuckerman is female and that person is still playing.

91

Breeze Zuckerman was the last woman in the Main event. And she just went Busto.

She went all-in under the gun with K/10? off and the button called with Pocket Aces.

92

That was fun. See you guys in November:

[spoiler]Seat 1: Jason Senti - 7,625,000
Seat 2: Joseph ‘subiime’ Cheong - 23,525,000
Seat 3: John Dolan - 46,250,000
Seat 4: Jonathan Duhamel - 65,975,000
Seat 5: Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi - 14,450,000
Seat 6: Matthew Jarvis - 16,700,000
Seat 7: John Racener - 23,525,000
Seat 8: Filippo Candio - 16,400,000
Seat 9: Soi Nguyen - 9,650,000

Jonathan Duhamel - 65,975,000
John Dolan - 46,250,000
Joe Cheong - 23,525,000
John Racener - 19,050,000
Matthew Jarvis - 16,700,000
Filippo Candio - 16,400,000
‘The Grinder’- 14,450,000
Soi Nguyen - 9,650,000
Jason Senti - 7,625,000[/spoiler]

93

You guys are gonna love this:

I entered the freeroll (even registered late - about ten minutes in), but had to leave the computer for a frakking Family Dinner before playing a hand. When I got back 1.5 - 2 hours later, we were nearing the bubble (IIRC it paid 1170/6000), and I had 10 chips left with blinds at 200/100.

The BB puts me all in, but I triple up with T5o against QQ when I flopped two pair. The SB also puts me all in, but lightning strikes again and I double up to 60 chips. Very soon we are in hand-to-hand play, and 222 losers bust out before the blinds bust me for good next time around.

948th for $0.44* in cold, hard, real American money.

Proof here. (I’m OtbertVII at Stars)

I think I have a new strategy for tournament play: register, then disappear.

*I think this boosts my cash account to $0.50. Big time, baby!

94

Hey, that play worked for you on Thursday.

Well, yours were suited, but close enough.

95

The November 9 will have an average 24.3 Million chip stack. but only two of the nine of stacks greater than average. The chip leader has a huge lead.

antes/Blinds are 50K/250K/500K, avg stack has 20.3 orbits. Last year, the avg stack had 26.7 orbits. So the action should go a little faster this final table versus last years final table.

96

Oh good, so the most important part of the tournament by far will leave the least amount of skill and complexity involved. Ahh, tournaments - where you get a few hundred BB on level 1 where it barely matters, and only a few BB at the last stage where all the actual important stuff is happening.

97

Do you really think that this is the fault of the tournament structure? I don’t

IMO, it is the players fault that the blinds are so big at this time. The play is so laboriously slow. I keep reading that plays tank for 10 minutes before making their play. I can’t imagine why it would take more than 1 minute to make a play.

Last year, at the final table, they played 276 hands, in 17 hours, Gross. ~ 15 hours net. 18.4 hands per hour or more than 3 minutes per hand. Most hands didn’t go to a flop.

I would guess that most hands that went to the river lasted at least 7 minutes. Good Gawd, that is a long time for dealing out 23 cards. (at the most).

98

Of course it’s the fault of the structure. That’s how tournaments are designed - they’re intentionally very lottery-like but making the structure top heavy and ensuring there’s almost no skill involved at the point. The WSOP ME is better than most, but it’s so anticlimactic for there to be early stages with actual good poker involved always devolve into some preflop pushfest.

But this is how the poker audience wants it apparently and I have no idea why. What do people get out of watching poker on TV when it’s all just all in preflop races? Do they actually enjoy the cards being dramatically turned over to see who happened to hit their 50/50 shot this time? Would those same people watch someone playing a slot machine? Very peculiar to me.

I agree that the slow play is obnoxious.

99

The tournament has 2 hour structures. How much longer would you want them to be? 4 hours 6 hours?

Maybe you think they should still be 100/200 blinds?

if the blinds were twice as long, the tournament could arguably last twice as long. Right now, the winner will play 10 days to win the tournament. 10 days! how many working stiffs can afford to take that many vacation days.

The tournament leader has worked very hard to get his substantial lead. He deserves to have the advantage going into the final table. And the higher the blinds, the more advantage he has.

Personally i think the structure is pretty close to where it should be.

100

FTR, the average stack has enough for 20-30 orbits since Day 3
Start 200.0 orbits
End Day 1 40.9
End Day 2 35.8
End Day 3 29.0
End Day 4 21.3
End Day 5 25.5
End Day 6 23.5
End Day 7 25.8
End Day 8 20.3