Excuse the temporary thread derail, but I gather the weather down there in Cornwall was pretty dreadful yesterday - the scenes of folk being rescued from flash floods in Coverack were quite frightening.
Fingers crossed you & your family are all safe, well & dry.
Morning Barny. Excuse the temporary thread derail, but I gather the weather down there in Cornwall was pretty dreadful yesterday - the scenes of folk being rescued from flash floods in Coverack were quite frightening. Fingers crossed you & your family are all safe, well & dry. Posted by Tikay10
Hi Tikay, woke up this morning to see these terrible pictures. Reminds me instantly of the Boscastle floods from back in 2004 which were even worse. Hope everyone down there on the Lizard is safe and well.
I'm less than 30 miles as the crow flies from Coverack, but we never had any rain at all. I'd heard there might be some thunderstorms around in the Channel last evening but never really thought much more about it.
Presume you're safely back from Vegas, hopefully brought a good few dollars back home with you. I've got a couple more posts for this thread over the next two rest days and before we know it, it'll be the final table and the WSOP 2017 will be over. Yes, I know there's the WSOP Europe but it's not the same, is it?
Someone earlier asked about why the November Nine idea had been canned? Probably for a number of reasons, but of course the big one is money. American TV rules, and the change is what ESPN wanted. With coverage live on the networtk every day (apart from one) for the first time this year, to now wait four months for the last three days would have lost all the momentum they've built up with their viewers. Other reasons also come into play, for instance when the November Nine started, there were two major poker brands who would negotiate silly deals for any player who was happy to wear their patch on TV. That market has now slimmed right down. Also, any loose cannons (think Neil Blumenfield two years ago) were getting coached to become theory-playing robots and no longer providing much entertainment.
A plethora of reasons (why November Nine is no more) but mainly ESPN. ESPN seem to dictate almost everything WSOP related these days.
It was an idea whose time had passed, & I'm very pleased it has gone in the muck.
One way & another, the 2017 WSOP has been the most successful for many years, as you will see when my latest Blog is published.
And if John Hesp were to manage top three, we'll see a whole now "Moneymaker effect". We will.
It's great for poker, this Final, IMO. So much better than the likes of StealthMonk, Dan Colman & Co. IMO of course....
And, personally, I'd much rather the world viewed John Hesp as a typical British poker player than Mr Kassouf. I get along OK with Will, but he definitely overdoes the trash talk at the table.
It's been the biggest and the best in terms of numbers, but then it was always going to be with an extra 7 events thrown in, including the Giant with its six Day 1s being played on successive Friday nights.
Numbers in some of the early events were down, but as the summer progressed, things began to improve and past the halfway point increases were beginning to show and by the end some of the differences were very healthy indeed. Headlined, of couse, by the Main Event with the third largest field ever and the largest since 2010 (the last WSOP before online poker became illegal in the US, significant because major poker sites satellited loads of players into WSOP Main Events before then)
Most years we get a double bracelet winner, this time around we've had two - David Bach (both in Mixed Game, events 11 & 30) and Nipun Java (tag team event 10 and online event 71). The tag team event was also significant because it was the first bracelet officially credited to India.
It was a great series for the Brits. Liv Boeree got the ball rolling very early when she sharead a tag team bracelet event with her partner Igor Kurganov, and then after a little gap, they just kept coming, to players who any would have thought would have bracelets already. Chris Moorman (event 27), Chris Brammer (45), Max Silver (53) and Elior Sion in the $50K Poker Players Championship. Near misses to for Benny Glaser & Deborah Worley-Roberts.
Doug Polk won the $111K Big One For One Drop, Frank Kaseela, John Monnette, Joe McKeehen added to their number of bracelets, John Racener & Chris Klodnicki finally got their first. No 15th for Phil Hellmuth but he did have some deep runs and extended his lead in the number of limetime cashes/Final Tables etc. Daniel Negreanu came close but lost the heads up match in the $10K PLO8.
The Main Event is, as always, wonderfully set up. Scott Baumstein and John Hesp have huge stacks and the others are all clustered together, so laddering considerations may well come into play relatlively early. Two Brits are in the final 9 (is this a first?), the first time we've had representation since Sam Holden came 9th in 2011. Jack Sinclair is an online player, and was persuaded to give live poker a go by well-known big stakes players Philip Gruissem and Anton Morgenstern, and was looking in great shape until he dusted off a large proportion of his stack (his choice of words) in a bluff to Blumstein. John Hesp on the other hand is a semi-retired businessman from Humberside who is a complete amateur, only plays £10 rebuys in Hull and has brought a wave of fresh air to the WSOP, in terms of his play, his demeanour at the tables, and of course his jacket. Sorry Tikay, the burgundy jacket is no longer the most iconic in British Poker.
The ME was also about repeats. When Mark Newhouse made back-to-back November Nines, no one ever expected that to be done again. Well they're still right, but only just as not one but two players came very very close to repeating that fact. Kenny Hallaert got to 64th spot before running into the Hesp buzzsaw, and Michael Ruane, 4th last year played through all 7 Days and even made the unofficial final table before uncomfortably busting out in 10th. We do have some familiar faces among the last 9 though, two of the have been here before. Antoine Saout finished 3rd in 2009 and Ben Lamb finished in the same position two years later.
Mention of the November Nine is now in the past tense. The FT will play out over the next three days starting tonight (1am our time I believe) rather than wait 4 months. Although the term "November Niner" is a nice way of referring to those who've made the FT, the changing of the format seems generally to have been well received. And when most poker players are happy with a change, any change, somebody must have done something right.
Finally, well done once again to the Sky Qualifiers. From those who had a good but ultimately unfruitful run in the Main, to those who played the Little One for One Drop and cashed, or in three cases had a very deep run indeed, it's been great following you from thousands of miles away and I hope you had one of the great weeks of your lives.
Thanks FCHD good read been following Facebook for the John hesp story and think it would be good for the game if he took it down let's the little players keep on dreaming
The FT is underway, and after just 4 hands we're down to 8 already.
The John Hesp show is on a roll, and it kept on rolling straight out of the traps. He won the first three hands, first on a 3-bet bluff against Antoine Saout (which of course he showed) and the second with a pair of Queens (which he also showed). This moved him into the chip lead. He also won hand 3
When he folded on Hand 4, the rail gave an audible groan, but the hand developed without him as Jack Sinclair raised from the button with AQ. Ben Lamb was sitting in the BB with A9, shoved over the top of the aggressive Londoner and was snap called. The flop was 6-5-4 and the turn a 3 giving a whole lot of outs to a chopped pot, but the river was a blank and we lost...
9. Ben Lamb ($1m)
This also virtually doubled up Sinclair to become the third biggest stack
Well I didn't expect play to be still ongoing when I got up this morning.
When I left it, about four hour ago, Blumstein and Hesp were the big stacks, Sinclair third and everyone ore or less clustered together.
Since then, it's not been a great day for the UK players. Hesp is down to 12m chip and is the second smallest stack, and :
8. Jack Sinclair ($1.2m)
I've no details of the bustouts yet, and I don't want to go trawling through the WSOP updates in case there's action I will see in the next 30 minutes. Blumstein still has the big stack with Benamin Pollok second and Daniel Ott third.
... and two or three hands later, they've called it a night, and will reconvene tomorrow with 7 players rather then the expected 7.
It sounds like there was as massive confrontation between Blumstein and Hesp which ended in a cooler for the American to take a large proportion of Hesp's stack. I'll do a full roundup if I get a chance to read through the update, hopefully at lunchtime
So to wrap up Day 1 of the FT, and the first thing to note was how little poker was played. After 12 and 13 hour days over the last couple of weeks, just 75 hands were played. So although the pressure was there in huge quantities, the one thing this day was not was gruelling.
The Ben Lamb exit has already ben covered and the only other elimination was Jack Sinclair. His agression had been noted on Day 7 when he lost a large proportion of his stack trying to bluff Blumfield, but with him being down to about 12 BB the shove with KJ from middle position was pretty standard. Salas asked for a count before folding, but then the very thing Sinclair didn't want to see, a reshove came at him from Bryan Piccioli who had the aces. A King on the flop gave Sinclair some outs, but all those outs stayed in and he was a goner.
So to the big hand of the night and the whole Main Event so far. Hand 47. Blumstein raised UTG, with Hesp calling from the BB. A flop of A75 seemed to the liking of both players, but they both checked. The turn card was a ten. Hesp checked again, Blumstein bet 3million. Hesp check-raised to 7m. Blumstein re-raised to 17m and Hesp shoved, which Blumstein quickly called.
Card were turned over, Hesp had what would normally be a very nice top two pair, but Blumstein had the other two aces to leave Hesp drawing dead. The pot was for 156m chips, giving Blumstein a double up and leaving Hesp down among the pack.
Pollak did pick up a number of medium sized pots to end the day in a decent second place, but to honest, most of the other play was fairly pedestrian by comparison, with the stated intention of playing down to 6 not achieved so they will come back today and try and eliminate 4 players to get back on track.
Blumstein 178.3m Pollak 77.5m Piccioli 35.7m Hesp 22.5m Ott 16.3m Salas 15.6m Saout 14.5m
Everybody left is now quaranteed a payout of $1.45m
We may have a November Nine after all, the seven remaining players may still be here come November at this rate.
Both Ott and Saout shoved within the first few hands but were uncalled
Piccioli made a profit of several million when he got quad queens, which in the spirit of Hesp he asked the table if they wanted to see and of course they said yes.
The first time someone was at risk was when Saout called a big bet from Blumstein pre-flop. Blumstein was trying to get a move through with 87 but the Frenchman happily looked him up with KQ and two more Queens on the flop saw the double up.
A few hands later it was Hesp's turn to double up. Pollok raised pre-flop from the button with AK, Hesp picked up Aces from the Big Blind and shoved which was called, and the board came all low cards for Hesp to survive.
Further jams from Ott and Salas saw then pick up blinds and antes
25 hands in, Blumstein has about half the chips in play, with Pollak still in second but with only about two thirds of the chips he had at the start of play.
Ott raised with pocket fours, Salas called with A10 after a long pause. A flop of A23 gave him top pair, and checked to Ott who (with a wheel draw) put Salas all in and was quickly called. A safe 6 on the turn was good for the Argentinian but a 5 on the river saw him crushed.
Two years ago, Joe McKeehen had half the chips in play 6-handed, last year Qui Nguyen had a similar position. Can Baumstein go on to emulate those two by using his big stack to bully the other five players?
They've also just announced the newest Poker Hall of Fame members. No surprise that in his first year of eligibilty Phil Ivey was the first inductee, while the second name is a wonderful choice, that of Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott. A well deserved honour.
Straight back from the break, the big stack raised with AQ of hearts, Saout as one of the short stacks shoved with fours, and a safe board brought him his second double up of the night, and elevated him to second place as the French players occupy second and third positions. This is only his 14th career WSOP cash but two of them have been 3rd and 6th at least in Main Event Final Tables. Hesp down to 15 BB at 800K/1.6m with a 200K ante, but everyone but Blumstein still has less than 30BB.
In contrast with the glacial pace so far, the last hand I mentioned above was hand number 107. Within 30 hands, the day was over.
Piccioli made a nice profit on hand 110 when he board ran out Q-J-10-7-A and his King made Broadway, but he still was relatively short and his tournament ended on hand 122. He moved all in for his last 15 million or so with A7, and was understandably called by Daniel Ott with pocket Kings. There was no ace nor any other help from the board and we were down to 5. Blumstein 172m, Ott closing in on 100m, Saout 39m Pollak 29m Hesp 22m.
Pollak shoved and got it through on hand 124, but two hands later his fellow Frenchman wasn't so lucky. Blumstein opened from the button and Saout called from the Big Blind. A flop of J-6-7 saw it go check-check, Saout checked again after a 4 came on the turn but that card inticed Blumstein to bet which Saout called. The river was a second Jack. Saout checked again and this time Blumstein went all in. Saout needed plenty of time to think about it and called. He showed trip jacks, which was good, but not good enough as Blumstein held 5-3 for a turned straight putting him over 200m in chips.
Hesp was getting very short now, he shoved once and got it through with Pollak reluctanly folding from the BB, but it all came crashing to an end when he shoved his last 11m (< 6BB) from the cutoff with the far from premium 97 suited. The button folded, but Pollak re-shoved from the Small Blind and from then on Hesp knew he was in trouble. Ott got out of the way in the BB and the cards were shown, Pollak's AJ meaning at least that both Hesp's cards were live. He picked up four more out on a flop of K-10-6, but both the last two cards of the night were fours and that was that.
6. Bryan Piccioli ($1.675m) 5. Antoine Saout ($2m) 4. John Hesp ($2.6m)
The three stacks going in to the final day are
Scott Blumstein 226m Daniel Ott 88m Benjamin Pollak 46m.
With the Big Blind being 2m, I'm sure anyone can work out how many BB each player has!
Comments
Morning Barny.
Excuse the temporary thread derail, but I gather the weather down there in Cornwall was pretty dreadful yesterday - the scenes of folk being rescued from flash floods in Coverack were quite frightening.
Fingers crossed you & your family are all safe, well & dry.
Hi Tikay, woke up this morning to see these terrible pictures. Reminds me instantly of the Boscastle floods from back in 2004 which were even worse. Hope everyone down there on the Lizard is safe and well.
I'm less than 30 miles as the crow flies from Coverack, but we never had any rain at all. I'd heard there might be some thunderstorms around in the Channel last evening but never really thought much more about it.
Presume you're safely back from Vegas, hopefully brought a good few dollars back home with you. I've got a couple more posts for this thread over the next two rest days and before we know it, it'll be the final table and the WSOP 2017 will be over. Yes, I know there's the WSOP Europe but it's not the same, is it?
Someone earlier asked about why the November Nine idea had been canned? Probably for a number of reasons, but of course the big one is money. American TV rules, and the change is what ESPN wanted. With coverage live on the networtk every day (apart from one) for the first time this year, to now wait four months for the last three days would have lost all the momentum they've built up with their viewers. Other reasons also come into play, for instance when the November Nine started, there were two major poker brands who would negotiate silly deals for any player who was happy to wear their patch on TV. That market has now slimmed right down. Also, any loose cannons (think Neil Blumenfield two years ago) were getting coached to become theory-playing robots and no longer providing much entertainment.
^^^
A plethora of reasons (why November Nine is no more) but mainly ESPN. ESPN seem to dictate almost everything WSOP related these days.
It was an idea whose time had passed, & I'm very pleased it has gone in the muck.
One way & another, the 2017 WSOP has been the most successful for many years, as you will see when my latest Blog is published.
And if John Hesp were to manage top three, we'll see a whole now "Moneymaker effect". We will.
It's great for poker, this Final, IMO. So much better than the likes of StealthMonk, Dan Colman & Co. IMO of course....
And, personally, I'd much rather the world viewed John Hesp as a typical British poker player than Mr Kassouf. I get along OK with Will, but he definitely overdoes the trash talk at the table.
It's been the biggest and the best in terms of numbers, but then it was always going to be with an extra 7 events thrown in, including the Giant with its six Day 1s being played on successive Friday nights.
Numbers in some of the early events were down, but as the summer progressed, things began to improve and past the halfway point increases were beginning to show and by the end some of the differences were very healthy indeed. Headlined, of couse, by the Main Event with the third largest field ever and the largest since 2010 (the last WSOP before online poker became illegal in the US, significant because major poker sites satellited loads of players into WSOP Main Events before then)
Most years we get a double bracelet winner, this time around we've had two - David Bach (both in Mixed Game, events 11 & 30) and Nipun Java (tag team event 10 and online event 71). The tag team event was also significant because it was the first bracelet officially credited to India.
It was a great series for the Brits. Liv Boeree got the ball rolling very early when she sharead a tag team bracelet event with her partner Igor Kurganov, and then after a little gap, they just kept coming, to players who any would have thought would have bracelets already. Chris Moorman (event 27), Chris Brammer (45), Max Silver (53) and Elior Sion in the $50K Poker Players Championship. Near misses to for Benny Glaser & Deborah Worley-Roberts.
Doug Polk won the $111K Big One For One Drop, Frank Kaseela, John Monnette, Joe McKeehen added to their number of bracelets, John Racener & Chris Klodnicki finally got their first. No 15th for Phil Hellmuth but he did have some deep runs and extended his lead in the number of limetime cashes/Final Tables etc. Daniel Negreanu came close but lost the heads up match in the $10K PLO8.
The Main Event is, as always, wonderfully set up. Scott Baumstein and John Hesp have huge stacks and the others are all clustered together, so laddering considerations may well come into play relatlively early. Two Brits are in the final 9 (is this a first?), the first time we've had representation since Sam Holden came 9th in 2011. Jack Sinclair is an online player, and was persuaded to give live poker a go by well-known big stakes players Philip Gruissem and Anton Morgenstern, and was looking in great shape until he dusted off a large proportion of his stack (his choice of words) in a bluff to Blumstein. John Hesp on the other hand is a semi-retired businessman from Humberside who is a complete amateur, only plays £10 rebuys in Hull and has brought a wave of fresh air to the WSOP, in terms of his play, his demeanour at the tables, and of course his jacket. Sorry Tikay, the burgundy jacket is no longer the most iconic in British Poker.
The ME was also about repeats. When Mark Newhouse made back-to-back November Nines, no one ever expected that to be done again. Well they're still right, but only just as not one but two players came very very close to repeating that fact. Kenny Hallaert got to 64th spot before running into the Hesp buzzsaw, and Michael Ruane, 4th last year played through all 7 Days and even made the unofficial final table before uncomfortably busting out in 10th. We do have some familiar faces among the last 9 though, two of the have been here before. Antoine Saout finished 3rd in 2009 and Ben Lamb finished in the same position two years later.
Mention of the November Nine is now in the past tense. The FT will play out over the next three days starting tonight (1am our time I believe) rather than wait 4 months. Although the term "November Niner" is a nice way of referring to those who've made the FT, the changing of the format seems generally to have been well received. And when most poker players are happy with a change, any change, somebody must have done something right.
Finally, well done once again to the Sky Qualifiers. From those who had a good but ultimately unfruitful run in the Main, to those who played the Little One for One Drop and cashed, or in three cases had a very deep run indeed, it's been great following you from thousands of miles away and I hope you had one of the great weeks of your lives.
The John Hesp show is on a roll, and it kept on rolling straight out of the traps. He won the first three hands, first on a 3-bet bluff against Antoine Saout (which of course he showed) and the second with a pair of Queens (which he also showed). This moved him into the chip lead. He also won hand 3
When he folded on Hand 4, the rail gave an audible groan, but the hand developed without him as Jack Sinclair raised from the button with AQ. Ben Lamb was sitting in the BB with A9, shoved over the top of the aggressive Londoner and was snap called. The flop was 6-5-4 and the turn a 3 giving a whole lot of outs to a chopped pot, but the river was a blank and we lost...
9. Ben Lamb ($1m)
This also virtually doubled up Sinclair to become the third biggest stack
When I left it, about four hour ago, Blumstein and Hesp were the big stacks, Sinclair third and everyone ore or less clustered together.
Since then, it's not been a great day for the UK players. Hesp is down to 12m chip and is the second smallest stack, and :
8. Jack Sinclair ($1.2m)
I've no details of the bustouts yet, and I don't want to go trawling through the WSOP updates in case there's action I will see in the next 30 minutes. Blumstein still has the big stack with Benamin Pollok second and Daniel Ott third.
It sounds like there was as massive confrontation between Blumstein and Hesp which ended in a cooler for the American to take a large proportion of Hesp's stack. I'll do a full roundup if I get a chance to read through the update, hopefully at lunchtime
The Ben Lamb exit has already ben covered and the only other elimination was Jack Sinclair. His agression had been noted on Day 7 when he lost a large proportion of his stack trying to bluff Blumfield, but with him being down to about 12 BB the shove with KJ from middle position was pretty standard. Salas asked for a count before folding, but then the very thing Sinclair didn't want to see, a reshove came at him from Bryan Piccioli who had the aces. A King on the flop gave Sinclair some outs, but all those outs stayed in and he was a goner.
So to the big hand of the night and the whole Main Event so far. Hand 47. Blumstein raised UTG, with Hesp calling from the BB. A flop of A75 seemed to the liking of both players, but they both checked. The turn card was a ten. Hesp checked again, Blumstein bet 3million. Hesp check-raised to 7m. Blumstein re-raised to 17m and Hesp shoved, which Blumstein quickly called.
Card were turned over, Hesp had what would normally be a very nice top two pair, but Blumstein had the other two aces to leave Hesp drawing dead. The pot was for 156m chips, giving Blumstein a double up and leaving Hesp down among the pack.
Pollak did pick up a number of medium sized pots to end the day in a decent second place, but to honest, most of the other play was fairly pedestrian by comparison, with the stated intention of playing down to 6 not achieved so they will come back today and try and eliminate 4 players to get back on track.
Blumstein 178.3m
Pollak 77.5m
Piccioli 35.7m
Hesp 22.5m
Ott 16.3m
Salas 15.6m
Saout 14.5m
Everybody left is now quaranteed a payout of $1.45m
Both Ott and Saout shoved within the first few hands but were uncalled
Piccioli made a profit of several million when he got quad queens, which in the spirit of Hesp he asked the table if they wanted to see and of course they said yes.
The first time someone was at risk was when Saout called a big bet from Blumstein pre-flop. Blumstein was trying to get a move through with 87 but the Frenchman happily looked him up with KQ and two more Queens on the flop saw the double up.
A few hands later it was Hesp's turn to double up. Pollok raised pre-flop from the button with AK, Hesp picked up Aces from the Big Blind and shoved which was called, and the board came all low cards for Hesp to survive.
Further jams from Ott and Salas saw then pick up blinds and antes
25 hands in, Blumstein has about half the chips in play, with Pollak still in second but with only about two thirds of the chips he had at the start of play.
Ott raised with pocket fours, Salas called with A10 after a long pause. A flop of A23 gave him top pair, and checked to Ott who (with a wheel draw) put Salas all in and was quickly called. A safe 6 on the turn was good for the Argentinian but a 5 on the river saw him crushed.
6 Damian Salas ($1.425m)
First break of the Day
Baumstein 191.1m
Pollak 42.7m
Ott 42.0m
Piccioli 34.0m
Saout 25.9m
Hesp 24.8m
Next payout will be $1.675m
Two years ago, Joe McKeehen had half the chips in play 6-handed, last year Qui Nguyen had a similar position. Can Baumstein go on to emulate those two by using his big stack to bully the other five players?
They've also just announced the newest Poker Hall of Fame members. No surprise that in his first year of eligibilty Phil Ivey was the first inductee, while the second name is a wonderful choice, that of Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott. A well deserved honour.
Piccioli made a nice profit on hand 110 when he board ran out Q-J-10-7-A and his King made Broadway, but he still was relatively short and his tournament ended on hand 122. He moved all in for his last 15 million or so with A7, and was understandably called by Daniel Ott with pocket Kings. There was no ace nor any other help from the board and we were down to 5. Blumstein 172m, Ott closing in on 100m, Saout 39m Pollak 29m Hesp 22m.
Pollak shoved and got it through on hand 124, but two hands later his fellow Frenchman wasn't so lucky. Blumstein opened from the button and Saout called from the Big Blind. A flop of J-6-7 saw it go check-check, Saout checked again after a 4 came on the turn but that card inticed Blumstein to bet which Saout called. The river was a second Jack. Saout checked again and this time Blumstein went all in. Saout needed plenty of time to think about it and called. He showed trip jacks, which was good, but not good enough as Blumstein held 5-3 for a turned straight putting him over 200m in chips.
Hesp was getting very short now, he shoved once and got it through with Pollak reluctanly folding from the BB, but it all came crashing to an end when he shoved his last 11m (< 6BB) from the cutoff with the far from premium 97 suited. The button folded, but Pollak re-shoved from the Small Blind and from then on Hesp knew he was in trouble. Ott got out of the way in the BB and the cards were shown, Pollak's AJ meaning at least that both Hesp's cards were live. He picked up four more out on a flop of K-10-6, but both the last two cards of the night were fours and that was that.
6. Bryan Piccioli ($1.675m)
5. Antoine Saout ($2m)
4. John Hesp ($2.6m)
The three stacks going in to the final day are
Scott Blumstein 226m
Daniel Ott 88m
Benjamin Pollak 46m.
With the Big Blind being 2m, I'm sure anyone can work out how many BB each player has!