Poker Blog & Poker Forum

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.

It was reported that men have participated in the WSOP Ladies Championship for the first time. The official WSOP update read “Although strongly discouraged from playing, tournament organizers can’t actually ban men from participating in today’s event. As a result, there are a few men scattered about the Pavilion in various stages of drag. Shaun Deeb (in picture) is one such dude. He showed up in a pink slip, straw hat, and lipstick to match.” Deeb, claiming to support women poker players, gave the following reason. He said that poker was a gender neutral game and that he was playing to promote the abolishment of gender segregated events. Bryce Daifuku was the highest ranking male finisher. He cashed in 103rd place.

Poker babe Michele Lewis is against men playing in Ladies Events but acknowledges their right to do so. She wrote in her blog “I don’t advise the following, however, if I were a total bitch… this is what I would do if I wanted to steer the steers from playing ladies events.” Her prescriptions include nagging them, judging their appearances especially what they need to do to get their butts in shape, insulting their family jewels and talking about their sexual inadequacies.

Women themselves hotly debate the rationale and need for holding women’s only events. Dr. Pauly cautioned men from joining in the debate. In his blog he wrote, “I’m thirty-something years old and if there’s one thing I learned the hard way – it’s that you never get in between two women in the middle of a vicious dispute. Nothing good can come of it, even if you’re holding out for that 1% chance of a three-some, it’s still not worth it.”

Coming to the nitty-gritty of the Ladies Championship, it was kicked off by Linda Johnson of Women in Poker Hall of Fame, who also played and finished in the money. A host of my favorite poker babes were also participating. Those who cashed in the event included Evelyn Ng, Lacey Jones, Liv Boeree and Maria Ho. The final table consisted of names I would not recognize as poker players. At the time of writing it was down to the final three with Vanessa Hellebuyck of France in the lead.

In the meanwhile Christine Pietsch set the record for a woman finishing in the highest position so far in a mixed event at WSOP 2010. She came second in the $1500 Seven Card Stud. Mike Matusow may not have to streak down the Strip after all.

Event #9 at WSOP 2010, the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em, was a measly affair. It had a starting field of only 650 players and a prize pool of only $877,500 and no big names. But it will be noteworthy for another reason. It was the first event in WSOP 2010 in which a group of women acquitted themselves well. These were not the poker babe kind of women players who are more known for what they do away from the tables. They were a more serious breed of professionals.

J.J. Liu came in third and won $86,512, which is what she could have expected to make by just reaching the final table in a donkament event. Joanne Jishung Liu is one of the highest ranked female players with live tournament earnings in excess of $2 million. In April this year she won the WPT Five Star World Poker Classic at the Bellagio. Her best WSOP performance was in a 2003 Ladies Event in which she came second. Liu’s marriage to poker pro Dan Alspach was a memorable event in the annals of poker gossip. The wedding took place on the flight deck of the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas with Alspach dressed as Captain Kirk and Liu as the Orion princess.

Julie Farkas finished in tenth place. She is a relative new comer. This was her second WSOP cash, the earlier one being a 78th place finish in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event at WSOP2009. The more familiar Melissa Hayden came thirteenth. Her best WSOP performance of a second place came way back in 2000. Once when asked what her highest poker aspiration was, Melissa replied, “Obviously everyone’s dream is to win the Big One.” Melissa’s live in boy friend Allen Cunningham has five WSOP bracelets and though they are not legally married she can perhaps still say that it’s all within the family.

The latest poker babe, porn star Samantha Ryan, made her debut in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event. Earlier she was seen at the Seven Card Stud Event with close friend and Ultimate Bet colleague Tiffany Michele. Samantha busted on Day 1. But she was in very famous company. Liv Boeree and Annette Obrestad did the same.

Fuzion Poker had informed in a poker blog that Phil “The Unabomber” Laak would be trying for the endurance poker record. On Saturday June 5 at 12.06 PM Las Vegas time Phil Laak became the official poker endurance champion by breaking the record of 72 hours and 2 minutes. This had been set by Larry Olmsted. For some reason the record of 78 hours 45 minutes set by Paul Zimbler is not treated as official. But that will not matter now because Laak has crossed that one as well. And The Unabomber will make things more difficult for the next man trying to break the endurance record. As per current plans Laak intends to keep playing for 90 hours. Who knows, once he reaches that he may try for a full century?

Laak began the mission on Wednesday June 2 at the Bellagio Casino. He is permitted a five minute break for every hour played. Laak accumulated his time so he could shower or do yoga. He has been eating under the guidance of a nutritionist, who provided meals every five hours. In fact the nutritionist has kept Laak on a strict no-sweets and low-fat diet since January 2010 in order to ensure that he is fit for the event.

It did baffle many why Laak chose the WSOP period for pursuing the record. Therefore he explained, “I wanted to just do it when I knew there would be games. I needed people around because you need that energy when you do long sessions. I didn’t think I was playing the $50K anyways.”

Phil Hellmuth was that close to getting his WSOP bracelet number 12, but he missed again. Had he got there his bragging rights would only have got bigger. At one time he was at number 5 and soon he was knocked out in the 15th place. The event was the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em. Events like these are referred to as Donkaments because of the large field of mainly amateur players. With all the big names engaged in more prestigious events it was the perfect opportunity for Hellmuth.

Hellmuth went all in with 80,000 chips. Scott Vener took him on. The WSOP updates recorded this moment in the following dramatic manner. “The cameras were rolling and the rail was packed when Vener put in the chips and the two flipped up their cards. … Hellmuth was down to one card for his tournament life. His attempt at a record 12th bracelet would only continue with a nine or queen on the river.” The card turned out to be the three of diamonds and it was all over for Hellmuth.

Michele Lewis of Girl on Girl fame is reporting live from WSOP through her blogs. She described an altercation between Hellmuth and Chino Rheem. The affair ended with Hellmuth pointing to the number 11 embroidered boldly on his cap. Maybe he should stick to that cap forever.

Meanwhile the real poker pros are battling it out in the Seven Card Stud World Championship. The positions are changing faster than a woman’s mind. Two hours back the top ten read like the who’s who of poker, but two hours is a long time. At the time of writing the big names left in the fray included Vladimir Schmelev, Michael Mizrachi, Men Nguyen, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson and Jennifer Harman.