Phil Hellmuth enters dressed up as Caesar

The latest amusing anecdote comes straight from the WSOP in Las Vegas. It is about the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em champion, Phil Hellmuth who dressed up as Julius Caesar and paraded through the entrance to the World Series of Poker last Sunday. He arrived in a car outside the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, and was accompanied by dozens of women and trumpeters, which drove the fans into frenzy.

11-time gold bracelet winner Hellmuth had won the WSOP main event 20 years ago and now appears again at the event’s poker table. Female gladiators with body paint and muses carrying rose petals in bags accompanied him throughout. “When you dress as Caesar you actually feel more powerful. Kiss my ring!” Hellmuth’s said while speaking to the AP, and continued “Hail Caesar!”

The television cameras showed how Phil was rolled in, greeted Jeffrey Pollack, the World Series of Poker Commissioner, and then had a quick change into standard attire for the tournament start.

During last year’s WSOP, Hellmuth surprised everyone with his Gen. George S. Patton attire, and this year it’s Caesar, and so the guess is that this annual dress up will become a tradition. “It’s a kind of fun. I think it’s great for poker” were his words.

Compared to Hellmuth, the other players had everyday attire without a bombastic entry but some players did have some gimmicks up their sleeve during the tournament of 2008, trying to draw attention to themselves and may be distract competition. Such as last year’s number three, Dennis Phillips, who won USD 4.5 million at the series’ final table and had a dozen supporters dressed in a white collared shirt and a St. Louis Cardinals hat.

Meanwhile, the WSOP sell-outs are looking great this year with almost 1,700 players entering this year’s tournament last Sunday. Many are expecting a bigger sale by today, one to reach a record of 2,600 players. In fact, July 6 is the last day and entries to the tournament are accepted with hopefuls guessing on an additional 800 new tournament applicants. Last year it was the turn of Peter Eastgate to win the event with a prize of USD 9.15 million. Eastgate had entered the event through a USD 10,000 buy-in tournament contested by another 6,844 players.

‘Ante up for Africa’ draws big stars, lots of money

The Third Annual ‘Ante up for Africa’ tournament was held in Las Vegas amid the 2009 World Series of Poker last week. The tournament was the brainchild of poker pro Annie Duke and actor Don Cheadle. The proceeds, normally donated by players, goes to the people of Darfur.

On a good note this year was the amount of entries compared to last year. There were a total of 138 players who ‘anted up’ the USD 5,000 to play in the No Limit Hold’em game this year. With a price pool of over USD 670Million, the first place winner would receive USD 177,730.

Alex Bolotin was the lucky player to win this year’s Ante up for Africa event. Bolotin donated half of his winnings to the ENOUGH Project and International Rescue Committee, the charity that has benefited from this poker event. Other celebrites and poker players raised USD 362,000 for the Crisis in Darfur. Of the 18 players who finished in the money, 17 donated at least a portion of their winnings to the cause.

The tournament lasted 10 hours this year and was held in the Rio Pavilion’s Amazon room, with hundreds of spectators trying to get a glimpse of all the celebrities in attendance.

WSOP: Michael Davis Wins Seniors Championship

Michael Davis had plans to move to Las Vegas due to its warmer winters compared to home state Iowa. Talk about making a statement when coming to town.

Davis was able to beat Scott Buller and his impressive chip lead to win the USD 1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold’em World Championship (Event 43), USD 437,358, and the World Series of Poker gold bracelet Wednesday night.

“I sold my (home inspection) business last week, now I don’t have a job to go home to,” Davis, 58, joked after the win.

Davis won the championship when his A 9 was able to beat out Buller’s A J . The flop came down 4 3 5 , but the 9 on the turn put Davis ahead. A jack or a deuce would keep the game going, but the 4 on the river ended the tournament and gave Davis the win.

The 2-1 chip lead Buller had as he and Davis began heads-up play quickly swapped. Davis raised from the button with A A and Buller went for the knock out, re-raising all in with 9 9 . Davis jumped even further ahead hitting the A on the flop, and Buller was unable to catch up.

Davis was able to pull closer to Buller’s massive chip lead by eliminating Barry Bounds to face Buller heads up. Bounds moved all in with A 6 and Davis called with A Q . The flop came down 4 2 7 and Bounds would need a six or runner-runner for a straight. The 5 hit on the turn to give him a two-way straight draw on the turn and when the 8 came on the river he turned around and gave former Main Event Champion Tom McEvoy, who had been sweating him the entire day, a high five, not realizing the card gave Davis a flush. Bounds left with USD 179,210 for finishing third.

“I got lucky,” Davis said. “Both those guys played great. Everybody at that table deserved to win. “I feel I was lucky during the entire tournament,” he said. “It was unbelievable fun.”

The tournament, held specifically for players at least 50 years old, had a record field with 2,707 creating a prize pool of USD 2,463,700. This was the second time Davis entered in the event, finishing 115th last year.

“I figured I’m not getting any younger,” he said. “Make it a yearly pilgrimage.”

As with most final tables at the WSOP, the last 10 were going to combine, but as one table said good bye to Ted Garner in 11th, Mitch Garshofsky was all in at the other table and lost the hand. So, instead of playing down to the official final table, Davis, Buller, Bounds, Dan Delatorre, Robert Beck, Michael Morusty, Richard McCall, Art Duncan, and Charles Simon made their last table change to play for the gold bracelet.

The group played only for a few minutes before going on dinner break, and played only a few hands before losing three players.

Beck was the first eliminated when he moved in with top pair against a set. Holding K J , he pushed on the J 6 8 flop and Morusty instantly called, holding 6 6 . Needing another running cards, the turn and river came 9 and Q , sending Beck out in ninth, collecting USD 53,208.

Then, almost immediately after, McCall was knocked out, again, with top pair. He made his move with Q J on the board of Q 7 2 , but DeLatorre made the call with K J . Like Beck, McCall would need runner-runner for a full house, but the K and 6 eliminated him in eighth. He won USD 56,903.

The third elimination of the table came about 20 minutes after play resumed when Duncan was knocked out. He re-raised Simon, who opened from under the gun, with K J , and Simon made the call with K Q . The A Q 6 flop gave Simon a pair, but Duncan was able to improve his odds to win by picking up the straight draw with four outs instead of the three he would have had with the jacks. The next two streets, however, came 3 , 9 , and Duncan was sent to the rail in seventh, winning USD 64,047.

After the Razz tournament wrapped up at the feature table, the seniors made their move to the stage. The bright lights, however, were unkind to DeLatorre as he was the next to leave. He made a push from under the gun with Q 4 hoping to get the blinds and antes, but Morusty, to his right, had kings. The board ran out 8 3 2 6 8 and the K K of Morusty stood up. Delatorre took USD 76,118 for the sixth place finish.

Simon was eliminated soon after as well. He moved all in from the small blind after Buller raised from under the gun. Simon’s A Q was the underdog to Buller’s A K going to the flop, which came down J 6 2 . The K gave Simon a straight draw to a ten, and the 9 on the river gave him and the crowd some excitement, but was ultimately not enough. He finished in fifth for USD 95,332.

But the excitement and disappointment from that hand was no match for the next elimination. Morusty re-raised Buller’s under the gun raise from the big blind and Buller moved all in, which Morusty instantly called. The crowd went insane when Morusty flipped over A A , which was a huge favorite to Buller’s A K . The audience was much calmer when the flop came K 3 8 . They almost cried when the 4 hit on the turn, and Buller channeled the excitement they used to have. The river came with another club, 7 , and Morusty was out. He took USD 126,863 for the fourth-place finish, and Buller took a dominating chip lead three-handed.

Final table results and payouts
1. Michael Davis - USD 437,358
2. Scott Buller - USD 268,507
3. Barry Bounds - USD 179,210
4. Michael Morusty - USD 126,863
5. Charles Simon - USD 95,332
6. Dan Delatorre - USD 76,118
7. Art Duncan - USD 64,047
8. Richard McCall - USD 56,903
9. Robert Beck - USD 53,208

WSOP: Traply Wins USD 5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout

No one at the final table of the USD 5000 No Limit Shootout (Event 41) was older than 24. The average age was just 22.

Peter Traply, 22, however, was able beat his younger opponent, 21-year-old Andrew Lichtenberger and some of the biggest names in the poker for his first World Series of Poker bracelet, USD 348,728 and the first championship for Hungary.

Traply bagged the championship when he moved all in with A K and Lichtenberger called with A J . An ace was in the door of the 5 3 A flop and the board paired queens on the next two streets, coming Q ,Q .

“Oh my God, I’m the happiest person in the world,” he said. “Winning a bracelet was one of my poker dreams and it came true.”

Lichtenberger was crippled when he moved all in against his Hungarian opponent with A K and Traply called with 6 6 . An ace hit on the flop with the A 8 9 and Lichtenberger’s freinds applauded, but the crowd at the feature stage erupted on the turn when the 6 peeled off the deck. The 2 came on the meaningless river and Lichtenberger was left with just under 300,000 in chips, while Traply had 7.1 million.

Despite the overwhelming chip deficit, Lichtenberger was able to come back to 3.4 million after doubling up three times. He was unable to complete the comeback, however, finishing second, earning USD 215,403.

“Andrew, of course, is a world-class player,” Traply said. “It was a tough final table, a tough field overall.”

Five players returned for the final day of Event 41 — Lichtenberger, Traply, Max Lykov, 21, Danny Wong, 24, and Nasr El Nasr, 23 — after outlasting superstars like Phil Ivey and David Pham on Monday for what might be the youngest final table in the history of WSOP. It is impossible to know the youngest, and oldest, final tables in history as the ages of the first WSOP contestants were never recorded.

After two hours without any big showdowns, El Nasr took a big hit when his aces were cracked by T 9 . Lichtenberger raised from under the gun with the suited connector before El Nasr re-raised with A A . The two moved all in with El Nasr having the chip and percentage advantage. The flop didn’t give Lichtenberger the best hand, but it made him a slight favorite as the 6 7 9 came off to give him a pair, a flush draw and a straight draw and a 53 per cent chance to win. The T on the turn gave the New York-native the best hand. El Nasr, from Germany, would need an ace, six or seven that wasn’t a diamond for the win or an eight for a chop, but the J came and gave the pot to Lichtenberger.

A few hands later El Nasr moved all in with 3 3 and was called by Traply called with 8 8 . El Nasr was never able to catch a three and was knocked out in the fifth place, earning USD 82,697.
The oldest player at the table, Wong, 24, was the next one eliminated. With the board reading T 2 2 7 , Wong made a push with top pair, holding A T , but Lichtenberger has the one holding aces this time. Lichtenberger slowplayed his two black aces perfectly, smooth calling Wong’s button raise from the small blind and checking on the flop and turn, when Wong eventually moved in. When Lichtenberger showed the A A on the turn, Wong would need to hit another ten on the river, but the 2 came, sending him to the rail. Wong left with USD 105,609 for the fourth-place finish.

Lichtenberger took out Lykov to face Traply heads-up for the championship. Lykov, who was the short stack with about 1 million in chips, moved all in with A T and Lichtenberger had two jacks. The Russian was never able to catch an ace and was eliminated. He took USD 145,063 for the third.

Veldhuis, Young talk WSOP $5k Shootout

According to Lex Veldhuis, today's $5,000 No Limit Hold'em shootout might as well be a different sport. The game is so different from a standard NLHE tournament that the Dutch pro says, "comparing it to a No Limit Hold'em tournament is like comparing Texas Hold'em to Omaha." The key difference, Veldhuis says, is the table draw.

In a shootout format, players compete in a series of single-table tournaments, with the winner of each table advancing to the next round. The WSOP's $5k event features three rounds in total, with the starting field slated to be distilled to a five-handed final table by Day 3. 

Since players don't move tables as in a normal tournament, avoiding the big name pros and SNG icons while registering can be key. "Your table matters more in a tournament like this," Veldhuis told to leading online site. "It's so much more important." Beyond table draw, which is uncontrollable, the pros point to the importance of adaptability as a key to success.

"I noticed in this tournament a lot of people were going wild preflop, so I'm sitting back and waiting for hands," said 2007 WSOP bracelet winner Ryan Young. "At the same time, people have been noticing that I'm playing tight so I've been able to get away with a couple of big bluffs."

Veldhuis, meanwhile, took the opposite tack on his Day 1 table. "You have to adjust for going from full-ring to shorthanded play," he said. "I try to pick on people who switch gears too late. "I try to double my stack early by putting pressure on people who are playing too tight. If I get to four-handed play I usually have the chip lead.

"I've made plenty of blow-ups with eight or nine people left too," he said. "But it's all about pressure." Young told that he found the shootout format easier than a normal freezeout-format tournament. "I like it," he said. "You've got to know how to play from ten players down to heads-up. For every player that you lose it's a different game. "It's also good because you're at the same table the whole time, so you can adapt to the players' different strategies."

In Day 1 action, Veldhuis emerged victorious at a table that included Philippe Rouas and Jerrod Ankenman. He'll return to action on Monday for Round 2 guaranteed $16,740 in prize money. Also advancing to the second round were Phil Ivey, Davidi Kitai, Danny Wong and Joe Serock.

A total of 280 players bought-in to the Shootout event, including poker icons Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Hellmuth was eliminated after a sometimes testy heads-up battle with Andrea Bonelli, while Ferguson, J.C. Tran, Isaac Baron and Jonathan Little also numbered among the eliminated.