WPT Championship Day 1

[The Prince]

Joe Cassidy leads the field. David Sklansky still in with 51,975 in chips.

More info here:

http://www.wptinsider.com/news/WPTChampionship2_1.asp

Nicolas Fradet (The Prince)

[WinBig]

Another website with info is Poker3000.com which lists the starting table assignments for today as well as all chip totals after day one. It also said Chip Jett went out on a tough beat when his set of K's wasn't good enough for a one outer Q that gave his opponent quads.

I would think play would be a little conservative with starting chip totals of 50,000. Blinds start this morning at 400/800 with 100 ante so that should be plenty of time to wait for a good hand for someone that has 30K in chips. I noticed the WPT Insider write-up did not include Phil Hellmuth as a player of note. A snub or an honest mistake? Poor Phil!

[ClunkerDuds]

Here are some of the more interesting chip counts:

Ben Affleck: 92,900
Daniel Negreanu: 46,325
Erik Seidel: 14,300
JOE CASSIDY 195,650 (1st)
JOHNNY CHAN 125,300 (13th)

Anyone with any info on how the hell Ben Affleck got chips would be nice.

[daryn]

last i heard poker was a game with a high short-term luck factor. in other words even the biggest idiot could amass chips fairly easily.

that said, i'm not saying affleck is an idiot, in fact i've heard he plays well, but even that is not 100% certain.

[astroglide]

as far as i know, he has only played in one televised event. would you care to illustrate which hands make him a bad player?

[cferejohn]

Doyle Brunson couldn't say enough nice things about how well Affleck and Damon played poker. I don't know how sincere it was, but the interviewer got the impression that he was genuinely surprised.

Affleck has always seemed like a bright guy; I don't know why he shouldn't be smart enough to be a good enough poker player to amass a good deal of chips early in a poker tournament. If he's still there at the end, I'll be impressed.

[italianstang]

Helmuth's name was on the list of players who were signed up at the Bellagio, and I watched the first hour or so of the tournament and I didn't see him anywhere. He is hard to miss given how tall he is and what a jackass he sounds like. Maybe he just let his chips get blinded off for a while and didnt show up at the beginning.

[rbenuck4]

I watched the celebrity home game he played in, and while he was a much better player than the other 5 he was playing with, there was one hand that indicated to me that he was a mediocre player at best.

I don't remember the exact details, but he was dealt AK in the small blind, and there were a few limpers, and he raised it only slightly (maybe to like 500 when the blinds were 100 200). Everyone of the limpers called. The flop came out blanks. He came out betting 500.

That to me is a weak bet, by a weak player.

Flame away

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't remember the exact details...

[/ QUOTE ]

I stopped reading after that.

C'mon...it's ALL IN the details.

[astroglide]

that is also 1 hand about which you do not even recall the details.

[Stew]

Among the players "killed in action", however, are Phil Ivey, Ron Rose, Sam Farha, Andy Bloch, Noli Franscisco, Casey Kastle, Chip Jett, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Mark Seif and Carlos Mortensen (who had Freddy Deeb, Howard Lederer and Gus Hansen at his table).

That's quite a list of heavy hitters that are gonzo already.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Getting there late on the 1st day is normal for Hellmuth

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Anyone with any info on how the hell Ben Affleck got chips would be nice.

The guy plays a lot of poker and he's not stupid. Ever think maybe he's a decent player who caught a good run of cards?

[AttackDog]

Hellmuth was 2 to 3 hours late

Joe Cassidy was on my immediate righe the whole first day. He got there an hour late. He was catching some nice cards against some second best hands. He had AA vs A5 and the turn was Ace rag 5 5.

My best hand was one pair in 2 days of playing (finished at number 170). The entire tourney had AA once, small pot, JJ once folded to a check raise on a K high flop. Lost with 1010 twice. A couple of baby pairs which did not improve. Missed every draw. Had 38o every 3rd hand (at least it seemed that way).

woof

[aaronjacobg]

what is the point of this post? do u want pity? You don't hear scotty nguyen bitching about not getting the cards. you see him playing w/ whatever he gets and winning most of the time. there are hundreds of sob stories just like yours from inferior players who just play the cards. i don't wanna hear it.

[sweetjazz]

Thanks for criticizing an interesting post from someone who was at the tournament.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your insightful analysis of tournament play. I wish there were most posts like yours which had such a good point. Maybe some of us will be lucky enough to play against you in a tournament, so we can watch you make great moves with 83o. That would truly be an honor.

[Clarkmeister]

[ QUOTE ]
what is the point of this post? do u want pity? You don't hear scotty nguyen bitching about not getting the cards. you see him playing w/ whatever he gets and winning most of the time. there are hundreds of sob stories just like yours from inferior players who just play the cards. i don't wanna hear it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am intrigued by your thoughts and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Joe Tall]

The TV celeb event was before he got a Poker Coach.

Peace,
Joe Tall

[AttackDog]

I don't think it matters I lasted longer than scotty, men the master, or a bunch of others. All but 50 players tied for out of the money. My point is you must eventually have a hand against another good second best hand. Winning the blinds can get you some chips but it will not create a big stack.

On Sunday night (before the tourney, during satellites), Scotty and Men were playing heads up in the tourney area for cash since they did not get enough players for a one table satellite. Scotty won. It was very interesting due to the big crowd that formed as well as some of the women who were hanging on to them for no apparent reason. The women were cheering on their hero and trash talking the other player (example, how many bracelets you got Men?). At first I thought they were with the players (girlfriends, wives etc), but once it was over the players ignored them and drifted away.

There was a big pot at my table between Howard Lederer and an ameteur on the second day with half the field gone. Average stack is 100,000. Howard has about 160,000 and opponent has 120,000. Howard always made the same preflop raise of 3 times the BB. The BB was 1600 and the antes were 200. The BB made a micro reraise like he often did and Howard made a big reraise which was called. Howard bet the flop and was called. The board was 9 high with a flush draw. They both checked the turn and Howard bet 75,000 on the river and was called by JJ. Howard never showed. I can only guess AK or 1010. The pot was over 200,000 and made Howard short chipped. I am convinced he was influenced by an earlier hand when this same BB player called my raise with 810o from the BB (and outflopped me and won the hand).

woof

[The WET BEAVER]

[ QUOTE ]
Among the players "killed in action", however, are Phil Ivey, Ron Rose, Sam Farha, Andy Bloch, Noli Franscisco, Casey Kastle, Chip Jett, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Mark Seif and Carlos Mortensen (who had Freddy Deeb, Howard Lederer and Gus Hansen at his table).

That's quite a list of heavy hitters that are gonzo already.

[/ QUOTE ]


how do you bust on Day 1 with 50 K starting chips?

Maybe it is because, as a 2+2 author suggested, that tournaments are not real poker.

[cferejohn]

[ QUOTE ]

how do you bust on Day 1 with 50 K starting chips?

Maybe it is because, as a 2+2 author suggested, that tournaments are not real poker.


[/ QUOTE ]

Holy irrellivent arguments batman!

Whatever your opinions of tournaments, the question was asked from the point of view of a tournament player commenting on a tournament structure. Your response doesn't really make any sense in that context.

Or maybe I just want to get into a flame war with beaver so I can see that girl lifting her shirt some more...

[AttackDog]

The first player was out in under 2 hours. There were 5 sessions of 90 minutes each on day 1. I believe the first player out had AA and got into a raising war against KK when a set flopped (they went allin after the flop)

woof

[Gotmilk]

The first player was out in under 5 minutes...

[AttackDog]

assumed the crowd noise was just the normal railbird cheering for Ben Affleck.

woof