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THE “RUGDOCTOR“in WSOP -David Williams

admin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:03:46 +0000

David Williams, found international fame with his runner-up finish in the 2004 World Series of Poker main event, took down the second-largest score of his career this weekend with his $1,530,537 win in the Bellagio’s World Poker Tour Championship. It was considered one of the crown jewels of the poker calendar; the Championship suffered a lot of loss in attendance for the third year running, with just 195 players putting up the $25,000 entry fee. Williams won the final table that was almost as noteworthy for who was missing as it was for who was there.
Deep runs by former WSOP world champions Phil Hellmuth and Scotty Nguyen had onlookers talking about either player joining Carlos Mortensen as the only players with both the WSOP and WPT crowns, but their twin ousters at seventh and eighth, respectively, left the focus on five remaining stars and one relative newcomer. Williams successfully defeated reigning Card Player Magazine Player of the Year Eric Baldwin in a final that lead to the entry of Williams to maintain a vast chip lead throughout. Baldwin’s elimination was the last on a day that saw former WPT winner Shawn Buchanan ($587,906) finish third, 2009 WSOP bracelet winner David Benyamine ($329,228) finish fourth, poker Hall of Farmer and seven-time bracelet winner Billy Baxter finish fifth and Irish online pro John O’Shea finish sixth as the first player eliminated at the final table. For Williams, the victory ended a drought of almost two years in which he failed to score a six-figure win. Among those changes was working with Sam Chauhan, the coach who had worked with Antonio Esfandiari In addition to the money, the victory ensures Williams a continued run in the spotlight that brought him his Bodog sponsorship.
For runner-up Baldwin, the high finish serves as validation for his Player of the Year title. Buchanan’s elimination in third place put an end to the WPT’s most wide-open Player of the Year race to date. While Faraz Jaka (the Player of the Year leader coming into the event) seemed poised to take the title when he held a chip lead with 18 players remaining, his 14th-place ouster left the door open for Buchanan, Hellmuth and Nguyen, each of whom needed to win the tournament to take the title.While it was a triumphant day for Williams, Baldwin and Jaka, this was not a triumphant moment for the WPT or the Bellagio. The 195 registrants were down from 338 a year ago, 545 in 2008 and 639 in 2007. The Bellagio’s unpopular decision to make preliminary tournaments at the annual Five Star World Poker Classic all rebuy events caused a sharp downturn in registration throughout the month. With so little action in-house, there was little incentive for players to attempt a parlay. With the EPT Championship in Monte Carlo and relatively little easy money in the field, there was little incentive for pros to make dual trips across the Atlantic. The Bellagio is already atoning for its miscues.
It was announced that next year’s Five Star series would be moved to May in order to incentivize early arrival for WSOP players, but there are real questions about whether this crown jewel has now been permanently damaged. For Williams, however, the decreased attendance allowed him to topple one of the toughest player-for-player fields of the year. As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,893,000. $4,299,996 of his live winnings have come at the WSOP, and most of the rest has come from the WPT.

RUSH POKER-FINALLY HERE

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:00:36 +0000

A few months ago, the craze that got the whole online poker world buzzing when it first launched in ring games made a successful transition over to the tournament side. It was launched on 19th April 2010. The much hyped Rush Poker tournaments have arrived. On the very 1st day it attracted 892 players, not least of them being Team Full Tilt’s own Andy Bloch. The buy-in was only $1 and the format of the game was Rush Poker.
It is available only and exclusively at Poker. Players can experience the world’s fastest poker tournament. The site explains the whole new format and rules. It is already getting widespread support. Grinders who had grown accustomed to massive multi-tabling and even amateurs who hated waiting around for playable hands were mystified and amazed at the ability to “quick fold” and almost instantaneously move to a new table with a new batch of players to compete in the next hand. The concept is that the players join a large player pool in a ring game and face a different table of players every hand they play. As soon as they fold their hand, they’ll be moved to another table for their next hand. Just like its cash games, players can use the “quick fold” option throughout tournament play. However, in Rush tournament poker, once a final table is reached, the tournament is played out normally, with no additional seat changes. There is also no hand-for-hand play in tournament Rush poker and once less than 30 players remain, the tourney moves to short-handed play to maintain a swift speed. The blind levels are very short, the structure is similar to that of a turbo or super-turbo but with the quick fold feature an individual will see as many hands as in a regular speed tournament. This is a great change for MTTs as players can now compete in large tournaments in a much shorter time without having to cope with the time pressure of a turbo.
Currently, Full Tilt is running two sit-and-gos with the new format. Full Tilt is the world’s second largest online poker site. But it’s not just hold’em that is the benefactor of Rush tournaments. Full Tilt is also using the new craze to energize its low-stakes pot-limit Omaha tournaments. Although the site is introducing these tournaments slowly, Full Tilt has already tournaments from $20 ($2) double-stacked six-handed Rush tournaments (both turbo and regular speed) to $2 ($.20) eight-handed PLO Rush tourneys. Full Tilt’s no-limit hold’em Rush tourneys have already attracted big fields. A $10 (+$1) event on April 20th 2010 witnessed a field of 1,086 players, including a couple Red pros in Roy Winston and Monte Kouz. The Poker Skool at Pokerrakeback also have been working throughout the weekend to trial the new Rush Poker. The upcoming 16th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS XVI) is said to be including three Rush Poker Tournaments: 1 Turbo, 1 Rebuy, and 1 Pot Limit Omaha Knockout. Rush poker is said to be the crack-cocaine of poker cash games!

The 2010 WSOP

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:57:48 +0000

Just over a month removed from the conclusion of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, Harrah’s has released the schedule for the 2010 WSOP, to be held at the Rio in Las Vegas. Beginning May 27th, the annual poker festival will once again consist of 57 gold bracelet events, culminating with the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship, which is the main event.
The highlights of the 2010 WSOP are the new $50,000 Player’s Championship, an eight-game mixed event. It will replace the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event which is to be ceased from this year onwards. But there is also the new $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship event. Games include Limit Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Seven Card Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. The winner will receive the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, as was the case with the H.O.R.S.E. event. And, like when Reese won the inaugural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event in 2006, the final table will be strictly No-Limit Hold’em.Two other events will be run for the first time: $25,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em and $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Then again the physical size of the WSOP keeps growing.
In 2010, the Series will be played in both the Amazon Room and the Pavilion Ballroom, a total of 96,000 square feet. There will be approximately 350 tables allocated for the tournaments. Refreshments to be located in a food court in the Miranda Ballroom. Each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 1:00pm in June, there will be a $550 buy-in, non-bracelet tournament, designed to last just one day. Once again, $5,000 Ante Up For Africa Celebrity-Charity Tournament returns for the fourth year. Registration is already open for the 2010 World Series of Poker. Players can register in person at the Rio or online at wsop.com. Registration will remain open for an event until the start of the third level or until all seats have been sold. In order to avoid the sell out problem that was encountered in the Main Event last year, players will only be able to choose a starting day for the No-Limit Hold’em Championship until a certain day, which has yet to be determined. After that cut-off, starting days will be automatically assigned. The entire spring/summer portion of the 2010 WSOP will last 51 days, from May 27th till July 17th of the year 2010. Harrah’s will continue the new tradition of pausing the Main Event once the field is narrowed to the final table and bringing the remaining players, who are known as the “November Nine”, back in November.
This coming year, the November Nine will reconvene to determine a winner November 6th through November 9th.Jack Link’s Beef Jerky will once again be the presenting sponsor of the World Series of Poker, while Everest Poker will again see its logo on the felt of every table. Jack Link’s supplanted Milwaukee’s Best Light as the presenting sponsor in 2009, while Everest Poker replaced Party Poker in 2008. But there are now rumors that the whole event may be shifted to be scheduled in 2011.