Speedyfold Poker Blog

Pius Heinz became the first German to win the WSOP Main Event. His aggressive play throughout the final table earned him a worthy victory. Martin Staszko from the Czech Republic likewise played some excellent poker and finished in 2nd place. The golden boy of the 2011 WSOP, Ben Lamb, finished a very decent third to cement his WSOP Player of the Year standing.

1 Pius Heinz $8,715,638
2 Martin Staszko $5,433,086
3 Ben Lamb $4,021,138

Pius has become a member of Team Pokerstars, so no doubt we’ll be seeing a lot more of him over the coming months and years.

With the WSOP Novemer Nine commencing in just a couple of days, all eyes (and money) seem to be on Ben Lamb and Phil Collins. Lamb in particular had a superb WSOP, and largely due to that has the most tounrament winnings of all the players at the final table. Staszko is the chip leader and cant be discounted, but can he close it out against a very agressive table? Sam Holden is the short stack. From interviews over the last few months he seems like a good guy, so it would be nice to see him secure a little more money. No one wants that dreaded 9th place as it means no more money on top of what they’ve already been paid. Expect some pretty tight play at the start for largely this reason alone.

Here is the table seat draw and chip counts:

1 Matt Giannetti 24,750,000
2 Bob Bounahra 19,700,000
3 Eoghan O’Dea 33,925,000
4 Phil Collins 23,875,000
5 Anton Makiievskyi 13,825,000
6 Sam Holden 12,375,000
7 Pius Heinz 16,425,000
8 Ben Lamb 20,875,000
9 Martin Staszko 40,175,000

The WSOP Main Event as always was full with lots of drama. Phil Hellmuth no showing and having his hotel room door broken into by security to wake him up. Ben Lamb continuing an amazing run. And a boyfriend/girlfriend couple both making it all the way through to the top 30 (Doc Sands and Erika Moutinho). To name but a few.

Following the events of Black Friday there was widespread belief that the field size of the main event would be smaller this year. Well it was, but not by much at all. In fact it was the 3rd largest main event field ever with 6865 runners.

Some of the notable deep finishes were:

JP Kelly: Out in 26th
Tony Hachem: Out in 37th
Erick Lindgren: Out in 43rd
David Bach: Out in 45th
Sebastian Ruthenberg: Out in 55th
Jean-Robert Bellande: Out in 65th
Allen Cunningham: Out in 69th
Daryl Jace: Out in 89th
Sorel Mizzi: Out in 95th
Eli ElezraL Out in 107th
Joseph Cheong: Out in 114th
Daniel Negreanu: Out in 211th

After 8 days of intense play we finally had the field down to 9 players, the November Nine no less. And here they are, with their chip stacks:

1 Martin Staszko 40,175,000 chips
2 Eoghan O’Dea 33,925,000 chips
3 Matt Giannetti 24,750,000 chips
4 Phil Collins 23,875,000 chips
5 Ben Lamb 20,875,000 chips
6 Badih Bounahra 19,700,000 chips
7 Pius Heinz 16,425,000 chips
8 Anton Makiievskyi 13,825,000 chips
9 Samuel Holden 12,375,000 chips

In November they will be competeting for a first prize of over $8 million. But for the time being they each have $782,115 secured and paid out:

1st $8,711,956
2nd $5,430,928
3rd $4,019,635
4th $3,011,661
5th $2,268,909
6th $1,720,396
7th $1,313,851
8th $1,009,910
9th $782,115

This year’s WSOP has seen some of the biggest prop bets ever. Not only has there been the Durrrr ones we have already discussed, but Phil Ivey has got some massive ones booked in. Howard Lederer has laid 5 million dollars against him getting 2 bracelets over the course of the next 3 years. Phil Ivey is already half way there after winning Event 37, the $3000 horse event. Following that win Ivey also booked bets running into the millions at 7-1 about him getting a 2nd bracelet this year. eg Phil’s $50,000 to villians $350,000

Phil has also got bets direct with Durrrr over who will get the most bracelets over 2 years. After nearly a great start for Durrrr (finishing 2nd in Event 11) Ivey has lept ahead with that Event 37 win, making it 1-0 to Ivey. Things look like a big uphill struggle now for durrrr, as Ivey is a bit of a bracelet machine given the proper motivation (ie money) and already has a total of 8 lifetime bracelets to his name now. Durrrr is still looking for his first one, but no doubt has the talent to get there.

Bets and talk about bracelets have been frantic of late, with Ivey vs Hellmuth also a lot in the news. Hellmuth has had a couple of deep runs (most recently 7th in a PLO8 event) but no bracelets this year. Most people in the industry seem to think it is only a matter of time before Ivey overtakes Hellmuth, some thinking in less than 5 years. Many are also speculating on Ivey even reaching the dizzy heights of 30 bracelets in his career. He’s sure come a long way since his No Home Jerome days.

It is a difficult task to negociate 6494 poker players, but if anyone can then Phil Ivey surly can. He is still going strong with just 19 players left. The final table is almost in touching distance. Lets hope Phil can make it. He’s already picked up 2 bracelets this series, so it’s proving to be an excellent WSOP year for Phil, who is one of a very few people ever to get 3 bracelets in one series (in 2002).

Another biggish name is also still alive in the tourney, that being Jeff Shulman. So, a slightly smaller cheer for Jeff too

Former crowd favorite, Tiffany Michelle, developed a bit of repuation as a super bitch at the 2008 WSOP. The 3 things in summary that did it were:

1. Calling the clock on someone when their tourney life was on the line and they had a tough decision

2. Eating fries at the table with her hands

3. Waggling her finger around (pointing at her chips) and not saying a word when asked for a chip count.

Having seen a few more recent interview videos with Tiffany, it seems that perhaps she received a bit of a hard time due partly to some rather harsh editing. For example, the player in question who she called the clock on had apparently been deciding for 10-15 minutes. She also says she received quite a lot of constant ribbing at the table, that put her quite a bit on the defensive, which naturally when seen in isolation looks like giving it some attitude.

Regarding the french fries saga she says she ate them with one hand and handled chips and the cards with the other hand.

Having seen the videos it’s tough not to like her as she always seems very friendly, passionate, and well-natured. The jury is out, I’ll let you decide for yourselves, but personally I’ve re-warmed to her as a poker personality, and it will be interesting to see if she can gradually turn the image around to a more favorable one.

Popular pro Scotty Nguyen picks up his 5th WSOP bracelet

Event 45 - $50K HORSE - 148 entrants
1 $ 1,989,120 Scotty Nguyen
2 $ 1,243,200 Michael DeMichele
3 $ 781,440 Erick Lindgren
4 $ 568,320 Matt Glantz
5 $ 444,000 Lyle Berman
6 $ 355,200 Barry Greenstein
7 $ 284,160 Huck Seed
8 $ 230,880 Patrick Bueno

Event 39 - $1500 NLHE - 2720 entrants
1 $ 631,656 David Woo
2 $ 389,844 Matthew Wood
3 $ 278,460 Eric Beren

Event 40 - $2500 2-7 Triple Draw - 238 entrants
1 $ 151,896 John Phan
2 $ 95,795 Shun Uchida
3 $ 61,583 Gioi Luong

Event 41 - $1500 Mixed Holdem - 731 entrants
1 $ 219,508 Frank Gary
2 $ 140,093 Jonathan Tamayo
3 $ 84,814 Nick Binger

Event 42 - $1000 Senoirs NLHE - 2218 entrants
1 $ 368,832 Dan Lacourse
2 $ 235,141 Dale Eberle
3 $ 156,424 Marc Fluss

Event 43 - $1500 PL Omaha Hi-Lo - 720 entrants
1 $ 216,249 Martin Klaser
2 $ 137,985 Casey Kastle
3 $ 83,538 Michael Fetter

Event 44 - $1000 NLHE w/rebuys - 879 entrants
1 $ 693,444 Max Greenwood
2 $ 445,523 Rene Mouritsen
3 $ 267,314 Albert Iversen

Event 32 - $1500 NLHE - 2304 entrants
1 $ 573,734 Jose Luis Velador
2 $ 366,387 Anthony G Signore
3 $ 243,734 Osmin Dardon

Event 33 $5000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo - 261 entrants
1 $ 328,756 Sebastian Ruthenberg
2 $ 202,406 Chris Ferguson
3 $ 125,737 Bob Lauria

Event 34 - $1500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys - 320 entrants
1 $ 577,725 Layne Flack
2 $ 355,050 Daniel Makowsky
3 $ 222,659 Jacobo Fernandez

Event 35 - $1500 Seven-Card Stud - 381 entrants
1 $ 135,753 Mike Rocco
2 $ 83,210 Al Barbieri
3 $ 50,186 Levon Torosyan

Event 36 - $1500 NLHE - 2447 entrants
1 $ 610,304 Jesper Hougaard
2 $ 389,128 Cody Slaubaugh
3 $ 258,862 Aaron Kanter

Event 37 - $10,000 PLO8 - 235 entrants
1 $ 535,687 David Benyamine
2 $ 331,350 Greg Jamison
3 $ 209,855 Jason Gray

Event 38 - $2000 Pot Limit Holdem - 605 entrants
1 $ 244,546 Davidi Kitai
2 $ 155,806 Chris Bell
3 $ 94,695 Keith Greer

Event 27 - $1500 NLHE -2706 entrants
1 $ 628,417 Vitaly Lunkin
2 $ 387,837 Brett Kimes
3 $ 277,026 Bobby Firestone

Event 28 - $5000 PLO w/rebuys - 152 entrants
1 $ 817,781 Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
2 $ 493,748 Adam Hourani
3 $ 316,307 David Benyamine

Event 29 - $3000 NLHE - 716 entrants
1 $ 434,789 John Phan
2 $ 277,452 Johnny Neckar
3 $ 167,973 Matt Vengrin

Event 30 - $10,000 Limit Holdem - 218 entrants
1 $ 496,931 Rob Hollink
2 $ 307,380 Jerrod Ankenman
3 $ 194,674 Tommy Hang

Event 31 - $2500 NLHE Six-handed - 1012 entrants
1 $ 528,418 Dario Minieri
2 $ 330,519 Seth Fischer
3 $ 214,139 Justin Filtz