Poker News Round-up

Brought to you every Friday

Poker News Round-up: Week #46

By Adam Noone, 14/11/2008

There’s no doubt what the major news of the week has been – yes David Benyamine is no longer a red pro on Full Tilt Poker, although so far nobody really seems to know why or where he might be signing up with next. In other news, there was a sit n go being held in the Penn & Teller Theatre within the Rio with quite a lot of money riding on it. So much money that $900,670 had already been paid to each of the so called November Nine as the minimum they could win for being first to bust for ninth place overall in the WSOP main event. Kelly Kim appeared to be the big favourite to be that player sitting on the short stack, but as play started he seemed determined to hold on and move at least one place up the payout ladder. That ploy proved successful when Craig Marquis suffered heartbreak having moved all in pre-flop with pocket sevens and found a caller in Scott Montgomery holding Q A. The flop brought a set for Marquis but running cards on the turn and river gave Montgomery a miraculous Broadway straight to send the unfortunate Marquis packing.

The unfortunate Craig Marquis

Having accomplished his mini mission to not be first out, Kim inevitably busted soon after to claim his extra $387,547. Thereafter, the worst hand winning became a regular theme for a while as David Rheem will remember well from his last hand of the tournament. He looked in great shape for a double up having got it all in pre-flop with A K against Peter Eastgate’s A Q but luck was with the young Dane and up popped a queen to end Rheem’s dreams of becoming world champion. Little slick was once again involved in an elimination match up when Scott Montgomery took it up against Darus Suharto’s A 8 but this time the best hand held up and Suharto left the scene with $2,418,562 to his name.

After losing a huge pot to Ivan Demidov after getting a little frisky with a suited ace, Montgomery once again found himself in a similar situation when his all in move with A 3 was called by Peter Eastgate in the big blind holding 6 6. An ace on the flop then another on the turn put Montgomery right back in the driving seat, especially as Dennis Phillips claimed to have folded 6 but then Eastgate caught lightning in a bottle when 6 appeared on the river to send the crowd wild and Montgomery to the rail in fifth place. It seemed Eastgate could do no wrong and once again he caught a full house on the river to eliminate the next player Ylon Schwartz who decided that aggression was the way forward when his ace high had failed to connect with the board. Schwartz’s big all in bet on the river was of course called by Eastgate who then took over the role of chip leader from Demidov.

Dennis Phillips’ stack had been up and down all day and having started as chip leader he lost around two thirds of his stack early on (folding what is rumoured to have been the best hand) and after a spirited rebuilding effort he also came to a sticky end trying to bluff Eastgate. Phillips was left searching for a miracle when his chips went in with no pair and no real draw, whereas Eastgate had flopped a set of threes which duly held up.

New world champion Peter Eastgate

So it was Ivan Demidov of Russia and Peter Eastgate of Denmark who would return the next day to play for the title, having sent their North American opposition packing. 74 hours of play had reduced a field of 6844 entrants to two final contenders hoping to earn a place alongside such greats as Brunson, Chan and Hellmuth as world champion. Eastgate started with the lead at about 59% of the chips in play but Demidov set about picking up some early pots to take draw level. With enough chips in play to ensure this wouldn’t be a case of just picking a hand and shoving it all in, over 100 hands passed whilst Eastgate gradually set about re-establishing himself as the chip leader and with blinds at a WSOP record 500,000/1,000,000 the moment came when all the chips went in the middle. On a board reading 2 K 3 4 7 Demidov moved all in thinking his 2 4 was likely to be good, but Eastgate had made a huge hand yet again. His A 5 for the wheel straight put Demidov to the sword and gave us the youngest world champion of all time. The 22 year old Dane breaks Phil Hellmuth’s old record and collects a massive $9,152,416 for first place. Sadly for him, that sum is taxable under Danish law and it is estimated that he may stand to keep as little as 27% of that for himself after the tax man has had his share.

Whilst most of the poker world’s attention has of course been on the events at the Rio, there has actually been a WPT event running in Connecticut at Foxwoods (who were probably less than thrilled to hear about Harrah’s decision to move the final table to this week.) Despite the clash with the WSOP and also the American election, a decent field of 412 came together to ensure there would be a first prize of at least a million dollars for whoever could outlast the likes of Ivey, Ferguson, Negreanu and a host of other top players.

Jonathan Little

That player turned out to be someone who seems to be making WPT events his speciality with seventh, fifth, second and now two first places in WPT tournaments in the past two years. Jonathan Little found plenty of big hands at the right time during the record length final table for a WPT event and after knocking out his final opponent Jonathan Jaffe, Little was able to lay claim to being one of the few players ever to win more than one tour title. A rather handy $1,120,310 also brings his live tournament winnings up to around the $4 million mark in the short time the 23 year old has been able to legally play in US casinos.

And whilst people are still turning out to play live poker, the online game took another hit this week with the news that the outgoing Bush administration seems hell bent on finalising the implementation of the UIGEA before it leaves office. A fast track plan is set to impose regulations on the financial sector just one day before Barack Obama takes office, with the onus being placed on banks and payment processors.The final rule requires US financial firms that participate in designated payment systems to establish and implement policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to prevent payments to gambling businesses in connection with unlawful internet gambling. Whilst experts spend the next few weeks translating the legalese in these new documents, the overall intention is clear - the Republican Party is intent on making it even harder for American citizens to access online gambling sites, and targeting the methods used to fund such accounts seems to be the most effective way of doing so. Nobody seems sure quite what effect this will have on such sites as Full Tilt and Pokerstars which rely heavily on US customers, but it looks like Party Poker might have been on to something when they decided to turn their attention elsewhere in the world and get their foot in the door first.

Adam Noone is a Full Tilt Pro, Play with him and the Mob at Full Tilt Poker

Post your comments in our forum

What's this?

Be a Full Tilt VIP and get 27% RakeBack!