Poker News Round-up

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Poker News Round-up: Week #09

By Adam Noone, 29/02/2008

The WSOP is fast approaching and there were some interesting updates this week on the changes we can expect at this year’s series. We already knew that the unpopular poker pavilion had been given the boot and it has now been confirmed that this will be turned into an improved food area. The smaller room which previously supplied snacks and pumped greasy smoke into the corridor will now host satellites, which in turn will free up more space in the Amazon Room for bracelet events. For the very large fields in the $1500 events and main event, a second ballroom will be made available where necessary.

More good news is that the $25,000 chip is to be replaced. Last year having pink, salmon and tangerine as the $5000, $25000 and $50000 chips led to complaints that mistakes were being made as the colours were too similar, and in fairness Harrah’s has listened. The $5000 and $50000 will remain the same but it was the $25000 that was the shade in between the two, so this should help.

One rule which players often disagree on in card rooms all over the world is the “show one, show both” rule whereby a player is not allowed to reveal just one card when their opponent has folded. This has previously been enforced at the WSOP but this year players will be allowed to wind up or deceive opponents by showing just the one.

Last year Hevad Khan’s simian celebrations divided opinion as to whether he was hilarious or imbecilic but he would be advised to tone it down for this summer. It is claimed excessive celebrations or theatrics will incur a punishment which is not a bad idea in principle but it would be rather poor form to call for the floor to impose a time penalty on an opponent unless their actions were especially disrespectful.

Two big tournaments drew to a conclusion this week starting with the EPT Copenhagen main event. Not being a country which uses the Euro, the tournament had a buy in of 50000 Danish Kroner which equates to a little over £5000. Action hand of the tournament definitely came on day 1b when three players got all their chips in on the flop with the board showing . The turn of gave William Thorson’s pocket nines a full house but amazingly he was behind a bigger full house and both were drawing dead against for the straight flush.

Tim Vance
Jonas Andree Photo

On day three a player who might well qualify for a WSOP over-exuberance penalty started building a big stack and when the final table formed Tim Vance had nearly double the amount of chips of his nearest rival. The final day saw Vance continue to win his races and he soon found himself heads up against Soren Jensen for the title. From that point on it was very slow going though with many walks for the big blind and five hours later they were still grinding it out, prompting concern from John Duthie as the casino was due to close. Matters came to a sudden end though when Jensen pushed on the river against Vance’s nut flush and a winner was found. Vance, who had qualified online using frequent player points, picked up $1,236,095 for the win and a place at the EPT grand final in Monte Carlo.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles a massive field of 665 runners were all hoping to become the latest WPT champion at the Commerce Casino. Improvised tables and seats had to be found for everyone to play simultaneously on the first day, but the large field inevitably trimmed itself down and by day three the bubble loomed. Extreme stalling tactics were employed by some prompting hand for hand play to be introduced earlier than planned, but the one player who appeared to be abusing his time to act more than anyone else received little sympathy when he ended up becoming the bubble boy after calling all in with trash.

Phil Ivey

As the field thinned further some notable names continued to feature at the top of the leaderboard. Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth had been successfully picking up chips for some time and owned the biggest stacks as play was reduced to one table. It looked like a potential dream outcome for the organisers if these two were to go heads up for the title but Hellmuth could only manage sixth place in the end. Ivey however did take his stack all the way and beat his final opponent Quinn Do to win the LA Poker Classic for $1.6 million. WPT final tables have not been kind to Ivey in the past but at the eighth attempt he has finally broken his duck and added another title to his long list of victories.

Next up on the tournament scene is the Gala Casinos British Poker Tour which kicks off season two in Edinburgh. Check out the live coverage section on the site for regular updates and other features.

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