2009 World Series of Poker running thread

201 players in the $40k 40th anniverary event, including this current table:

Scott Seiver
Scotty Nguyen
Phil Ivey
Brett Richey
David "The Dragon" Pham
Alan Sass
Phil Hellmuth
Corwin Cole
Unfortunate unknown player

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/updates.asp?tid=7227&grid=607

 

201!?! That's more than I expected for that event.

 

Prize pool says $1.8 million for the winner, $1.1 for second, top 27 get paid.

 

The only thing that stinks is that Daniel Negreanu and Johnny Chan are already out and it looks like Phil Ivey and Scotty Nguyen is on life support. I would love to have seen those four make the final table.

On the other end, though, Hellmuth looks strong right now as does the always fun to watch Tony G and the fossil man has a decent chip stack as well.

I hope the final table - which will obviously be made into one of those hour long weekly TV shows -- has nine guys we've all heard of.

 

One thing I noticed about some of the events last year was ESPN would extend the bigger final tables to two hours, seperating them into two one-hour shows for  re-run purposes.

Esfandiari is the chipleader right now, and Brunson, Justin Bonomo and Ted Forrest are all doing well as well.

Oh, and it appears Ivey just tripled back up into the middle of the pack.

 

Which Brunson? Doyle or his son Todd?

 

Doyle

 

Yeah, for whatever reason Todd isn't playing this event. Neither is Gus Hansen, according to the blog, the rumor being he has a big bet riding on the French Open.

 

Eastgate, Demidov, Annie self-absorbed no-talent asshole Duke, David Williams -- all gone.

Moneymaker in third chip position.

 

So is Hansen's French Open bet on a match today or for the entire tournament?

 

No, I don't think you are. The thing with some others like Hachem is that they've had success in following up their main event win. Hachem has 10 cashes at WSOP and WSOP Circuit events, three other final tables and a 10th place outside of his win, and has won a WPT title.

Moneymaker has made a WPT final table since his win, but hasn't won anything else of note. I'd say his protagonist that night, Sam Farha, through appearances on High Stakes Poker et al. holds a greater respect within the game.

And Inky, it didn't say, but I'm assuming it was on a single game, and he wanted to watch, otherwise I don't see why he wouldn't have played today .