Poker Blog & Poker Forum

A very unusual strip poker tournament has been organized in London next month. It is a part of the London Poker Festival, which kicks off on August 28 and runs till September 30. Apart from the strip poker event, the London Poker Festival will be hosting the London leg of the WPT, the WSOPE events and Poker in the Park, which will be inaugurated by poker babe Liv Boeree.

The strip poker event is called the Baller Strip Poker Championships. It will take place at the legendary Stringfellows gentlemen’s club in London’s Covent Garden on September 21. Stringfellows is the most famous gentlemen’s nightclub in the world and the ideal location for the event. However this strip poker tournament has a twist. The poker players will not be relieved of their clothing when they lose. According to the Baller Strip Poker rules, the Stringfellows girls will be doing the undressing on their behalf. Each player will be assigned a Stringfellows dancer and she will strip by removing an item of clothing instead of the player. The Baller Strip Poker Championships will raise money in support of cancer awareness charities. London hosts the regular type of strip poker championships as well. It was started in 2006 by Paddy Power. Today the World Strip Poker Championships have become an annual event. Each player begins wearing five items of clothing, supplied by the organizers and the event continues until only one player is left partially dressed. Towels are provided for modesty but there is only so much a towel can do.

In strip poker players end up naked, but in a recently announced event players will start that way. This is a regular poker tournament that will be played at Cap d’Agde, one of the world’s most popular naturist resorts located on the French Riviera. The resort features restaurants, bars, gyms, bakeries and a casino, all of which can be enjoyed au naturel. The nude poker tournament is being held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the resort’s casino. No date or tournament structure has been announced yet. Those interested should track the resort’s web side and be prepared to lose their inhibitions.

On the twelfth day of the WSOP 2010 Main Event, the 7319 entrants were whittled down to the final table of nine players. This group has traditionally come to be known as the November Nine because the final table will resume only in November. The last elimination was especially grueling. It took almost six hours after the previous elimination for Steven Brendon to lose all his chips and be out of the race.

The November Nine list with chip counts reads Jonathan Duhamel (65,975,000), John Dolan (46,250,000), Joseph Cheong (23,525,000), John Racener (19,050,000), Matthew Jarvis (16,700,000), Filippo Candio (16,400,000), Michael Mizrachi (14,450,000), Soi Nguyen (9,650,000) and Jason Senti (7,625,000).

Of these names most poker fans would be familiar with only Michael Mizrachi. Michael has had an excellent run this WSOP. He has already captured a bracelet in the prestigious $50,000 Players’ Championships and if he wins the Main Event it will be an unparalleled double. Michael is short stacked going in to the final table. But he has been just above elimination level for the last day or so and has grinded his way to the November Nine. If any one wants to know why he is called The Grinder they should study his performance in this event.

Michael will undoubtedly be the popular favorite since there is no one with as much public presence. Besides he has come through a lean patch in poker and a rough patch in life. He will want to answer his critics and himself. If Michael is looking for any more inspiration he only has to look at 2009 November Nine. Last year’s winner Joe Cada was identically short stacked at the seventh position going into the final table.

The biographies of the November Nine have already started circulating on the Internet and by the time action resumes on the final table they will be better known. Collectively this is a young final table with only Soi Nguyen being over 30. There are 6 Americans, 2 Canadians and 1 Italian. And all are male. The last woman standing was Breeze Zuckerman at 121.

The odds at sports betting sites are already out for the eventual winner and they generally follow the chip count. Duhamel is the favorite at 3 to 1 and Senti is at 16 to 1. Only Michael has been pushed up to number three spot in the odds because of his experience and reputation. At 5 to 1 he is worth backing.

Apart from perhaps the Main Event, the Tournament of Champions (TOC) will be the most watched event of the season. The interest has been enhanced because the TOC has been reintroduced after a three year gap. 20 players voted by the public and 7 nominated players will vie for one of the most coveted crowns in poker.

The 27 players were drawn into three tables of nine each. Mike Sexton the 2006 TOC winner and “poker’s greatest ambassador” started the proceedings by calling “Shuffle Up and Deal”. Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer and Huck Seed did not turn up on time. Hellmuth and Seed are habitual late comers. Hellmuth’s delay agitated Mike ‘the Mouth’ Matusow, who cannot get into the groove unless he has a slanging match with Hellmuth. He had to be content with telling everyone that Hellmuth’s behaviour was disrespectful to ESPN, to the other players and the game of poker. On the other hand Greg Raymer showed great respect to the occasion. Never seen in anything but shorts even in the coldest weather Raymer turned up in a pair of slacks.

The table talk was not all poker. Daniel Negreanu offered Cloutier $1 million if he would kiss Esfandiari. Cloutier did not pick up the gauntlet. Esfandiari was willing to French kiss Cloutier for $1 million, but this time Negreanu was not willing. The slanging match did materialize and the tournament director had to intervene. But it was impossible to keep Matusow down. “These are my fans,” he boomed. “Stand up when I make fun of Phil Hellmuth!” And his fans responded.

John Juanda was the first to go. It is always a bad feeling. Juanda Tweeted, “Just like that, I’m out of TOC. Tried to get Harman to lay down 2nd set and it didn’t work! Thx again4 all the supports &loves, guys! ” But the shock defeat was that of Phil Ivey. He went all in with a pair of Kings. Chris Fergusson had a Queen pair. A Queen on the turn knocked Ivey out. After winning his eighth bracelet Ivey has offered 7 to 1 that he will win his ninth in WSOP 2010 as well. Well it will not be in the TOC.

At the time of writing 17 players remain. The Grand Old Man of poker, Doyle Brunson, is out. Both the poker babes Annie Duke and Jennifer Harman are in. Matusow is at the head of the table. So it is not only big talk from him.

The biggest news from WSOP 2010 so far is that Phil Ivey topped Event #37, the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E., and won his eighth gold bracelet. Ivey is the first really big player to win a bracelet this year. Michael Mizrachi who has won a bracelet is not in the same league. Tom Dwan, who is in the same league, missed out by losing the heads up in Event #12.

John Juanda and Bill Chen were with Ivey in the last three. At that time they had 13 WSOP bracelets between them. We will let the statistics minded readers figure out if any top three has ever had a larger collection of bracelets. Juanda was the first to go, but this cash ensured him the current top spot for the WSOP 2010 Player of the Year. At that time Ivey was desperately out chipped but he clawed his way back to knock out Chen. The prize money of $329,840 that Ivey won is peanuts. It is known that the prop bets surrounding Ivey wins run into millions. What is not known is how many millions. The most publicized prop bet is the one with good friend and Full Tilt team mate Howard Lederer. The amount is $5 million, though Ivey needs another bracelet to win this bet.

The stories of what happens on the sidelines are often more interesting than what is happening on the table. During the final table Ivey began to feel cold and asked for a hoodie. After winning the bracelet Ivey left the hoodie behind. Mickey Doft, who was reporting the event, grabbed the hoodie. After all its finders keepers and Ivey would never report it as lost. Doft was seen wearing the hoodie playing Razz, hoping to capture Ivey’s vibrations and win a bracelet for himself.

The bracelets tally now stands as follows. Phil Hellmuth has 11, Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan have 10 each, Johhny Moss has 9 and Erik Seidel and Ivey have 8 each. Ivey has received messages of congratulations from all the greats but the one he is likely to cherish the most comes from the Grand Old Man of poker. Doyle Brunson said, “#8 for Ivey? Wow! I’m pretty hard headed about players being great but I finally have to admit he is the best all around player.”

WSOP has gotten pretty dull. The big names and big mouths are not figuring anywhere and there has been no non-poker action at the tables or at the rails. Poker babe Lacey Jones has joined Full Tilt Poker, but Lacey makes more news when she changes clothes than when she changes online poker rooms. Therefore the most exciting thing that has happened at WSOP is the release of two lists.

The first list consists of the 20 players who received the most votes for entry to the Tournament of Champions (TOC). The only woman in the 20 is Jennifer Harman. Apparently her provocative soliciting has paid off. For the most part the poker fans voted according to stature. In all 355,081 votes were cast. Phil Ivey topped with 16,267 votes. He was followed by Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth. The least known name in the list is of Dan Harrington. Harrington won two bracelets in 1995, including the Main Event, but has done nothing of note since 2004 in the WSOP arena. Jennifer will be joined by the only other woman in the 27 who play out this event. The other woman is Annie Duke. 7 players have been given direct entry without having to go through the vote on account of their being past TOC winners, WSOP 2009 Main Event winners or sponsor’s nominees.

The second list consists of the current leader board for the 2010 WSOP Player of the Year (POY). The tournament is only half way through and changes should be expected. This list also has only one woman player in the top 20. J.J. Liu is number 17 with 100 POY points. The leader is James Dempsey with 180 POY points. The list is based on POY points and not on earnings. The top earner so far is Michael Mizrachi with over $1.6 million. The only other player to rake in more than a million dollars so far is Vladimir Shchemelev.

There are two players who are on the top 20 in both lists. They are John Juanda and Sammy Farha. They are the popular poker pros who are currently in form.