Posts Tagged ‘poker pros’
Which Poker Pro Has the Least Misshapen Face?
December 2nd, 2010To become a rich poker player, you have to know how to play the game. To become a rich AND famous poker player, it also helps if you’re not really weird looking. And, according to all kinds of studies, one of the biggest indicators of being good looking is having a very symmetrical face. That is, people find it attractive when the left and right side of your face are roughly similar in size and shape.
In the interest of science, we have taken photos of a number of poker pros and split each down the middle. Then we created a mirror-image of each half, so that we can see how the two sides match up, as a test for symmetry. Don’t get it? No worries – the photos should still be illuminating.
Tom Dwan
Phil Ivey
Gus Hansen
Jennifer Tilly
Phil Hellmuth
Rumor: Poker Pros Involved in Machete Mugging at EPT Barcelona
November 25th, 2010
William Reynolds, on the business end of an 18 inch machete?
Rumors are starting to swirl that a pair of poker pros have been involved in a machete mugging at the EPT. Well, by “rumors”, I mean a couple of Facebook posts, a TwoPlusTwo post about those posts and one cryptic Tweet that may or may not have been written purely as a result of those Facebook posts. But in any case, the situation seems to be that pros Carter Phillips and William Reynolds may have been on the receiving end of some machete menacing at the Barcelona stop of the European Poker Tour.
Carter Phillips, who won this event last year, posted this on Facebook a few hours ago: “I’d like to make this announcement that I am 95% sure that I am officially done with poker. more details to come. in the process of writing out a lengthy explanation to release to the poker community shortly.”
Then fellow pro William Reynolds replied with: “for all of you that want to make bets or ridicule this post, now is not the time – none of this has anything to do with anything card related – people got robbed tonight and almost injured. I am thankful the 18in machete that was being swung at me last night didn’t kill me – the end.”
Another pro, Jonathan Aguiar, then sent out this tweet: “giving thanks that I am with my family now instead of being robbed by machete wielding maniacs at EPT Barcelona.”
And that, so far, is the extent of the news. We’ll probably look more soon, but in the meantime, hopefully everyone’s okay and nobody ended up getting hurt in the incident.
Larry Flynt Wants to Open a Las Vegas Casino
November 23rd, 2010
One question: can we cash in those G.W. Bush 9-11 bills for chips at Flynt’s casino?
Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt has been playing for high stakes in the casino pits and poker rooms of Las Vegas since the 1970s. Now he says he wants to open his own casino in Sin City.
In a recent interview with Las Vegas television station KLAS-TV’s investigative reporter George Knapp, the longtime Hustler magazine publisher talked about his latest business venture, the Hustler Club. Billed as the most expensive gentlemen’s club ever built – reports say it cost some $30 million to construct – the four-story, 70,000-square-foot strip club towers over the surrounding area on Dean Martin Drive and serves as Flynt’s foothold in the Las Vegas business landscape. As impressive as the Hustler Club might be, Flynt said that he only built the club because the time isn’t right yet for him to build his own Las Vegas casino.
In order to open his own casino in Las Vegas Flynt would have to be granted a gaming license by the state of Nevada. He told Knapp that he doesn’t think he’d have any trouble getting one because his only felony conviction – an obscenity charge in Ohio for publishing Hustler, the battle over which was chronicled in the Academy Award-nominated 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt, starring Woody Harrelson – was eventually overturned.
If Flynt were to open his own casino in Las Vegas, it would be actually be the second casino in his empire – he opened the Hustler Casino in Gardena, Calif., south of Los Angeles, back in 2000. And chances are that any Flynt-owned gambling house in Vegas would feature a sizable poker room to keep the boss man happy, quite likely attracting top poker pros with the lure of the kind of high-stakes action Flynt enjoys. If that sounds like too much of a stretch to believe, consider that the second-largest score of respected pro Barry Greenstein’s 18-year tournament career came back in 2003 when he defeated Flynt heads-up in a seven-card stud event at Hustler Casino sporting a $125,000 buy-in.
For now Las Vegas high-stakes poker pros will have to cool their heels waiting for the prospect of a Larry Flynt-owned casino. In the meantime you can probably find at least a few of them hanging out at the Hustler Club – and odds are they’re won’t be looking for a poker game.
Creepy Poker Photos for Halloween
October 27th, 2010Just in time for Halloween, we’ve scoured the interwebs to bring you the creepiest, scariest or most Halloween-y poker photos ever. And yes, we also noticed that a lot of them seem to involve male poker pros with their shirts off. Sorry. And yes, one of them may be ‘shopped. See if you can spot which one.
1) Antonio Esfandiari displays the magic.
2) Scaaaaary corpses playing some cards – from the Body Exhibition.
3) Mike Matusow showing off his money-maker.
4) Speaking of which, here’s Chris Moneymaker wrestling some guy in a hotel hallway.
5) Creepy plastic surgery disaster.
6) The Bride of Chucky.
WSOP Circuit Regional Championship In The Money
October 27th, 2010
John Patgorski leads the charge to the final table. (Photo: WSOP)
Another long day of poker wrapped up at the Horseshoe Hammond casino in the early morning hours today, and every one of the players who bagged up chips will be walking away with a solid return on his investment.
Play was originally scheduled to conclude around 1 a.m., but instead it continued through to the bursting of the money bubble. That didn’t happen until nearly 2:45 a.m., when Justin “Boosted J” Smith’s A-4 caught a four to outrun Cero Zuccarello’s A-Q and send Zuccarello home. The sole bright spot for Zuccarello is that he earned 50 points toward his standing on this season’s WSOPC National Leaderboard – that’s as much as he would earn for winning a preliminary gold ring event, or for finishing in fifth place at a Main Event, so he has plenty to build on as this season progresses should he choose to keep entering Circuit events.
As for those who will return to play at 1:00 p.m. today, they’ll be chasing John Patgorski, who ended the day with a field-leading 729,000 in chips. That puts him about four big blinds ahead of two-time WPT final tablist Curt Kohlberg, who ended the day with 704,000. Further down the counts, but most definitely still in the hunt, are accomplished poker pros Justin Smith, Steve Zolotow, David “Bakes” Baker, Shannon Shorr, Brandon Adams, Chris Klodnicki and Adam “Roothlus” Levy, as well as ESPN poker analyst Bernard Lee.
The plan for today is to play down to the final table of nine, which will play out tomorrow in front of a full television crew. With seats in the $1,000,000 WSOP Circuit National Championship going to everyone at the final table, there’s a lot more than just the $525,449 top prize on the line at this Regional Championship.
Kurt Jewell Wins Horseshoe Hammond WSOP Circuit Main Event
October 25th, 2010
Kentucky poker pro Kurt Jewell is the big winner in Hammond. (Photo: WSOP)
Kurt Jewell has been playing poker competitively for several years, compiling two tournament wins and a string of cashes worth more than $100,000 in limited action. Now he has the bankroll to play bigger and more often, thanks to a win at the WSOP Circuit Main Event at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind.
The tournament more than doubled the previous record for the most entrants in a WSOP Circuit main event, drawing 872 players. That built a prize pool just shy of $1.25 million, one of the largest the Circuit has seen in years. Jewell entered the final table with 6.8 million chips, nearly three times as much as his nearest competitor, and held the lead nearly the entire time. The lineup he faced was mostly inexperienced, though it did feature two poker pros with long records and another with more than $1 million in tournament earnings. Former WSOP Circuit ring winner Bryan Devonshire was the first of the three to go, taking a brutal beat to exit in seventh place ($37,047) when his K-K was cracked by Edwin Choi’s 8-2 of clubs in a blind-versus-blind confrontation. Will “Monkey” Souther left next, his A-J falling to Choi’s pocket kings to send him home in sixth place ($47,772).
PCA High Roller champion William Reynolds managed to survive all the way to three-handed play despite entering the final table near the back of the pack. But he fell short when his A-4 couldn’t beat Jewell’s A-6, sending him home in third place ($110,657). That set up an hour-long heads-up battle with Jared Kenworthy which finally ended when Jewell’s Q-J cracked Kenworthy’s A-Q on the river. That gave Kenworthy the $150,104 runner-up prize, while Jewell took home $242,909 and a gold WSOP Circuit champion’s ring. He also earned a seat at the WSOP Circuit National Championship, which will be played at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas next spring.
Normally the Main Event is the end of any WSOP Circuit stop, but the Horseshoe Hammond installment is a special one. The first-ever WSOP Circuit $10,000 Regional Championship, which begins today at noon CT, will wrap things up at the Horseshoe. Kurt Jewell and the rest of the ring winners from the last week and a half will all be playing in the tournament, and with the higher buy-in there may be also be a healthy contingent of big-name poker pros in attendance.
World Poker Tour London Airs on Five in UK Tonight
October 13th, 2010
Jake Cody (center) will get some serious face time on the telly tonight.
It used to be that there was an extensive time gap between a World Poker Tour tournament being played and the final package hitting television sets around the world. Tonight, however, viewers in the United Kingdom will get to bypass that long delay when the first of four episodes covering last month’s WPT London poker festival airs on Five.
The first half of Five’s WPT London coverage will follow the £5,300 main event, which drew 171 players and was won by the UK’s own Jake Cody. The victory marked his second major win of the year, following up on his success at EPT Deauville in France back in January, and earned him £273,783 (US $425,492). That tournament will stretch across two weeks on the television before Five moves on to the £15,000 High Roller event.
The field in the WPT London High Roller tournament was much smaller at just 19 players, but every one of them was capable of winning the title. In the end American pro Justin “Boosted J” Smith was the winner, taking home £141,000 (US $219,131) after he defeated Tony G in heads-up play. Five will also air two episodes from the High Roller event, bringing its total number WPT London episodes to four.
The quick turnaround should be a welcome sight for UK poker fans, who have read all about the enormous success of their poker pros this year but haven’t had the opportunity to see much of it on the television just yet. WPT London begins airing on Five at 11:55 p.m. tonight.
Poker Fans of Both Sexes Want to Sleep With Jennifer Tilly
October 12th, 2010
Twitter confirms it: everyone thinks Jennifer Tilly is smokin’ hot.
A recent Twitter poll by legendary poker pro Doyle Brunson has provided some definitive answers to some questions about what poker fans think of the poker players they watch on television and follow on the internet.
On the subject of which poker pros fans would most want to have sex with, Brunson divided the answers into two lists. The vote-getters among male players were Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey, while tops among the female poker pros were Shannon Elizabeth, Vanessa Rousso, and Jennifer Tilly. The poll-taker also added a note that Jennifer Tilly received votes from both men and women – no huge surprise given how much of a cult hit her lesbian crime film Bound (co-starring the excellent Gina Gershon) still is to this day.
On a more platonic note, the top finishers in the category of poker pros that fans would most like to hang out with were Phil Laak, Gavin Smith and Daniel Negreanu – no surprises there given how gregarious those three are, both when the cameras are rolling and once they’ve been turned off. As for the players poker fans would most like to kill, there were again no surprises: the top three finishers were self-aggrandizer extraordinaire Phil Hellmuth, disgraced former world champion Russ Hamilton, and bad boy trash talker Tony G.
So it seems that what people see on televised poker shows heavily influences the perspective they take on poker players – food for thought if you ever find yourself invited to play on TV or find yourself moved to a featured table during the WSOP.
Record Field Turns Out for EPT London Main Event
September 30th, 2010
The Hilton Metropole hotel, home of EPT London and all of its poker glory.
The EPT London main event got underway yesterday at the Hilton Metropole hotel in the UK capital with a first starting flight of 339 players, including a full complement of accomplished poker pros and online poker players.
Leading the pack after nine levels of play was American Soheb Porbandarwala, who finished Day 1A with 218,600 in chips. That put him more than 30,000 ahead of his nearest competitor with blinds still at 500-1,000, giving him a lot of room to maneuver when he returns to the felt tomorrow. Among the other well-stacked players who will return with Porbandarwala are 2009 WPT Merit Cyprus Classic winner Thomas Bichon, 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event champ Barry Shulman, former WPT Championship final tablist John O’Shea, former child chess prodigy turned EPT final tablist Jeff Sarwer, NAPT Venetian champ Tom Marchese and 2004 WSOP Main Event winner Greg Raymer.
Day 1B began earlier today and drew an even larger field. This time 514 players showed up, packing the Metropole to capacity and pushing the tournament’s total attendance up to 853. That makes this year’s EPT London the largest live poker tournament ever held in the United Kingdom, smashing last year’s EPT London record mark of 730 players. Among the top pros in today’s starting flight are David Benyamine, Daniel Negreanu, James Akenhead, Praz Bansi, Scott Seiver, Padraig Parkinson, and last night’s EPT Heads-Up winner Annette Obrestad.
Day 1B continues until the end of the ninth level of play tonight. Surviving players from both EPT London starting flights will combine and resume play at noon local time tomorrow.
Top Poker Pros Chase WSOP Europe Main Event Bracelet On Day 4
September 26th, 2010
Phil Ivey returns on Day 4 with a strong shot at making the WSOPE Main Event final table. (Photo: WSOPPhotos.com)
Of the 346 poker players who turned up for this year’s WSOP Europe Main Event, an unusually high percentage were players with serious tournament credentials. It’s no surprise, then, that there are still plenty of household names among the 22 players in contention as the fourth day of play begins.
Busting out before Day 3 was through but still taking home some pocket change were Irish Open winner James Mitchell (31st place), Freddy Deeb (30th), Bryn Kenney (29th), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (24th) and Barry Greenstein, who ended the day in 23rd place when his aces fell to Daniel Steinberg’s pocket tens. Though none of them cashed big, they did make the money, outperforming fellow pros like Huck Seed, Daniel Negreanu, Eli Elezra, November Nine member John Dolan, Nam Le, J.P. Kelly, Matt Stout and Nick Schulman.
Of those who will return to play more poker tomorrow, Brooklyn’s Ronald Lee is at the front of the pack with 947,000 in chips. Lee won two critical coin-flip hands early in the day before turning a flush in a big pot that sent John Eames home in 27th place and allowed Lee to make his first move toward the chip lead. A little further back in second and third places are David Peters (829,000) and Andrew Pantling (821,000), who finished right behind bracelet winner Phil Laak in Event #1 of this year’s WSOP Europe. And then there’s Viktor Blom, the Swede everyone in the universe is sure is Isildur1, sitting in fifth with 705,000 in chips.
As for the rest of the field, there’s a lot of hardware being toted around by poker pros at both ends of the leaderboard. Greg Mueller (151,000 in chips) and Roland de Wolfe (113,000), three WSOP bracelets between them, occupy the bottom two spots and will be looking to double up in short order. Meanwhile Phil Ivey (657,000) and Hoyt Corkins (566,000), who have 10 gold bracelets between them, occupy the sixth and seventh spots. And in between are two French players with titles from other tours, 2007 EPT Prague champ Arnaud Mattern (468,000) and 2009 WPT Merit Cyprus Classic winner Thomas Bichon (308,000).
Play down to the final table gets started in London at noon. American audiences who don’t want to follow live updates can watch Day 4 of WSOP Europe in its entirety, with hole cards, on ESPN3 at 12:00 p.m. ET.
