We all remember Phil showing up to the 2007 WSOP in a NASCAR uniform after crashing his race car a few days before. This year was no different as Phil showed up dressed as an 11 star General for his Day 1d start.
He showed up to the Rio in the back of an Army Jeep and was accompanied by poker pro Mark Kroon as well as eleven ladies all dressed in army apparel. Each lady represented one of Phil's bracelets that he won in years prior. Hellmuth has always tried to stand out and I would say he definitely accomplished his task again this year.
Hellmuth's Day 1d field was the largest of the 4 Day 1 fields and his field of over 2,000 players helped spark a new record for entrants which surpassed last years number of 6,358. This years field was a little over 6,840 and included some well-known professional athletes such as Chuck Liddell, golfer Paul Azinger, and former professional MLB pitcher David Wells.
The WSOP has shown to be an event where all types of men and women can have fun while possibly playing with a professional. Chuck Liddell, for instance, was matched up across the table from Mr. Phil Hellmuth. I'm sure Phil wasn't too harsh on Chuck, but once again we are never sure of what Phil is capable of doing.
Phil's field was not filled with just athletes as some top of the line pros were also in the hunt such as Doyle Brunson, Jerry Yang, and Michael Mizrachi. The 2008 WSOP is sure to be another thrilling and exciting tournament.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Trip Report on TurningStone
Along with 3 other friends I recently visited Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY for nearly a week to play poker while the Heartland Poker Tour also was visiting Turning Stone. The larger buy-in tournaments were earlier in the week building up to the main event which was a buy-in just over $1600. One of my friends was staked in each of the events, a $300, $700, and the main event, but did not run well throughout the course of the trip. I decided that if the cash tables went well I would enter the $220 deep stack turbo tournament on Sunday, the last day of the trip.
As soon as we arrived my friends and I decided to hit up the cash tables for sessions usually lasting for around 3 or 4 hours, then party at night depending on our outcomes. Sometimes we decided to play up until 5 or 6 in the morning depending on how well the sessions were going. The first couple days didn't go as well as expected but the trip turned around quickly as I had a a few very valuable sessions where I bought into the $200 max $2/$3 blinds for $200 then left with around $600 or more. After doing this a couple times I decided that I would play the $220 deep stack tournament on Sunday.
But even before this the trip had many other high points such as the Shenendoah Golf Course that I decided to play, along with the drinking which obviously came at night and even often during the day, I was just disappointed in the lack of beer, liquor doesn't settle too well in the body for around 5 days straight. The golf course was amazing and I shot an 86 which was a fairly decent round for the difficulty of this particular course.
The $220 deep stack started off fairly well with nearly 300 people entered in the tournament along with two other friends of mine. One of my friends was elminated extremely quickly in a 60,000 pot when the blinds were 75/150, which would have set him extremely far ahead of the competition. The other lasted deeper into the tournament but was knocked out by A 10 when he held AQ. I played very well in the beginning and the major hands were as follows.
I first doubled up as a player raised preflop when I held 10 10. He raised about 4 or 5 times the big blind, and flop came all unders 8 7 5, he then decided to just push all-in on the flop and I called instantly showing him my tens, and he flipped up K J. My tens held and I doubled.
Further in I was all in pre-flop with QQ to AJ which very surprisingly held to build my stack well over 100k. I then later woke up to aces in the big blind after a short stack pushed all in pre-flop with 99. I won this pot as an ace flopped which built me up to nearly 200k in chips.
The final two tables started to become crazier as blinds rose every 20 minutes. I was never truly in a shove/fold position, but came very close as blinds rose to around 30,000/60,000 with 5,000 as antes. I played the short stack well building up to around 600,000 into the final table. My final hand was with 10 10 as I raised pre to around 150,000 on the button, the big blind reraised all-in and I was nearly pot committed with less than 300,000 left. I actually almost folded, but decided to call and he showed me his Jacks, which held.
But overall the entire trip was very profittable and turned out to be a blast. We decided we will probably be returning August for the Continental Poker Tour that will run through Turning Stone, which should bring even more people into the casino that the Heartland.
As soon as we arrived my friends and I decided to hit up the cash tables for sessions usually lasting for around 3 or 4 hours, then party at night depending on our outcomes. Sometimes we decided to play up until 5 or 6 in the morning depending on how well the sessions were going. The first couple days didn't go as well as expected but the trip turned around quickly as I had a a few very valuable sessions where I bought into the $200 max $2/$3 blinds for $200 then left with around $600 or more. After doing this a couple times I decided that I would play the $220 deep stack tournament on Sunday.
But even before this the trip had many other high points such as the Shenendoah Golf Course that I decided to play, along with the drinking which obviously came at night and even often during the day, I was just disappointed in the lack of beer, liquor doesn't settle too well in the body for around 5 days straight. The golf course was amazing and I shot an 86 which was a fairly decent round for the difficulty of this particular course.
The $220 deep stack started off fairly well with nearly 300 people entered in the tournament along with two other friends of mine. One of my friends was elminated extremely quickly in a 60,000 pot when the blinds were 75/150, which would have set him extremely far ahead of the competition. The other lasted deeper into the tournament but was knocked out by A 10 when he held AQ. I played very well in the beginning and the major hands were as follows.
I first doubled up as a player raised preflop when I held 10 10. He raised about 4 or 5 times the big blind, and flop came all unders 8 7 5, he then decided to just push all-in on the flop and I called instantly showing him my tens, and he flipped up K J. My tens held and I doubled.
Further in I was all in pre-flop with QQ to AJ which very surprisingly held to build my stack well over 100k. I then later woke up to aces in the big blind after a short stack pushed all in pre-flop with 99. I won this pot as an ace flopped which built me up to nearly 200k in chips.
The final two tables started to become crazier as blinds rose every 20 minutes. I was never truly in a shove/fold position, but came very close as blinds rose to around 30,000/60,000 with 5,000 as antes. I played the short stack well building up to around 600,000 into the final table. My final hand was with 10 10 as I raised pre to around 150,000 on the button, the big blind reraised all-in and I was nearly pot committed with less than 300,000 left. I actually almost folded, but decided to call and he showed me his Jacks, which held.
But overall the entire trip was very profittable and turned out to be a blast. We decided we will probably be returning August for the Continental Poker Tour that will run through Turning Stone, which should bring even more people into the casino that the Heartland.
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