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New Coverage for World Series of Poker

The TV Coverage of this year’s World Series of Poker will include several major changes compared to previous years.  ESPN have decided that instead of filming the H.O.R.S.E event, which is a prestigious, big-money tournament that covers five poker disciplines, they will air coverage of three smaller events instead.

The H.O.R.S.E event has proven popular among hardcore poker fans, but the network decided that it did not translate to TV screens very well, and ratings have suffered.

ESPN will instead airing coverage of three events from this year’s WSOP: the 40th anniversary $40,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event, the Ante Up for Africa event and, of course, the Main Event.

Additionaly, the WSOP organizers have added another day to the calendar before the final table, citing the reason that the Main Event should be a test of skill rather than a test of endurance.  The added day has posed a problem for ESPN, as the pace of eliminations appears to be quicker than in previous years.  Rather than giving ESPN three hours of television out of each 10-12 hour day, the are finding it hard to find stories to tell from the shorter amount of footage.  This has, however, meant that poker fans get more of what they really wan - nitty gritty hands instead of all-in confrontations.

Can Phil Ivey win the 2009 Main Event Championship?

Poker players around the world are all asking the same question. Can Phil Ivey win the 2009 No Limit Main Event Championship? Well that is certainly a viable question and one that will be answered a few months from now in November. After eight grueling days of playing non-stop poker for twelve hours a day we are now down to the final nine players. By now most of you know who Phil Ivey is but for those who don’t let me give you a brief summary of his poker career.

Phil Ivey was born in New Jersey and learned to play cards at an early age. Once he put together a small bankroll he would head off to Foxwoods to play seven-card stud and no limit hold’em and hone his skills. Ivey held a job as necessary but new early on that he was going to be a professional gambler and put his energy into becoming the best there is. Like everyone else he had his ups and downs and went broke many times before learning proper bankroll management to go along with his growing skill playing poker.

Ivey broke onto the national scene in 2000 winning a couple of titles in the US Poker Open and Jack Binion Open. In the 2002 World Series of Poker Ivey won three bracelets announcing to the poker world that he was here to stay. Since then Ivey has been a mainstay on the poker scene with several tournament wins which include the 2009 World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic for a cool $1.5 million dollars. Ivey is just as deadly in online and live cash games raking in millions of dollars against top poker pros over the years.

One would think that he would have a considerable edge over the rest of the table. However, that is not necessarily the case because Ivey is short stacked at this final table with only $10 million in chips and will need to double up relatively quickly. My feeling is that Ivey will either double up early and make a run or be out of the tournament. Why? Well, because I have never known Phil Ivey to play for anything less than First Place.

It certainly will not be easy as the chip leader is sitting on a stack of $59 million with the next largest stack at $34 million. However, if Ivey can double up I expect that it will be a very entertaining final table and we just may see him take down the Main Event and add yet the most significant bracelet of his two already from this years WSOP.

I am looking forward to it and you should be too.

Peter Eastgate Becomes Youngest WSOP Main Event Champion

A 22-year-old Danish poker professional won the World Series of Poker early Tuesday, turning a wheel straight on the last hand to become the youngest champion in the history of the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em main event.
Read more

WSOP Final Table November 9 Date Draws Near

The 39th Annual World Series of Poker Main Event saw an increased field of 6844 hit the felt for the first days play in the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

After 12 days of high pressure poker, by the 15th of July those 6844 had whittled down to just 9, who have now become known as the November Nine, the nine poker players left to vy for the title of WSOP Champion at the WSOP Final Table.

This year a total of 6,844 players made their way to the Amazon Room at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas in pursuit of the championship and the $9 million first place prize and for the first time the Final Table has been delayed to allow live broadcast of the WSOP Main Event Final Table.

Each of the November Nine players who made it to the WSOP Main Event Final Table have received ninth place prize money on July 15th, when the final table was determined and each of those players with an all expense paid trip for two for their return to Las Vegas in November to play the final portion of the tournament.

On November 9th, 2008, the following those nine players will return with 21 minutes and 50 seconds left in level 33 and the Ultimate winner taking home over $9.1 Million.

Final Table Payouts

• 1st $9,119,517
• 2nd $5,790,024
• 3rd $4,503,352
• 4th $3,763,515
• 5th $3,088,012
• 6th $2,412,510
• 7th $1,769,174
• 8th $1,286,672
• 9th $900,670

Unfortunately, this year there’ll be no famous calls of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie”; but the November Nine are a diverse group of players that include no fewer than four countries including a Russian, a Dane, two Canadians and five Americans. There’s also a chess player, a salesmen, a college student as well the usual collection of professional poker players.

Salesman, Dennis Phillips who will carry the chip lead for 117 days until they resume play. Phillips, who plays tournaments at his local casino 3-4 nights per week, ended the last night of play with 26,295,000 which is good enough to put him 1,895,000 ahead of Russia’s, Ivan Demidov who finished with 24,400,000. Here are the official chip counts and seating assignments for the 2008 November Nine :

WSOP Final Table Chip Counts & Seating Assignment

• Seat 1: Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000
• Seat 2: Craig Marquis - 10,210,000
• Seat 3: Ylon Schwartz - 12,525,000
• Seat 4: Scott Montgomery - 19,690,000
• Seat 5: Darus Suharto - 12,520,000
• Seat 6: David ‘Chino’ Rheem - 10,230,000
• Seat 7: Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000
• Seat 8: Kelly Kim - 2,620,000
• Seat 9: Peter Eastgate - 18,375,000

When the WSOP Final Table resumes the blinds will be at 150,000 / 300,000 with a 40,000 ante and given the siz eof the chip stacks with even the shortest at around 30 big blinds, there’ll be planty of chance for every player to make their mark.

At Oz Poker, we’ll be profiling each player and listing their successes in the run up to November Nine and Sportsbet are offering a market on the final table with Dennis Phillips and Ivan Demidov equal favourites at $5.00 and Kelly Kim the longest runner at $26.00.

Sportsbet offer all our readers a free $50 WSOP bet, so there’s really no excuse not to ante up on your favourite player and have an interest as we wait for the November Nine show.