Bessoted Phil Ivey fans will be muttering sweet nothings into each other’s ears this morning.
Writing for njonlinegambling.com, top scribe Brian Pempus brought to light a court filing that had emerged from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Thursday detailing a genial and generous decision from both parties to stop going at each other’s throats.
If you think time whizzes past faster than a pair of smouldering lips within the hurricane of halitosis, then you’re right. The Phil Ivey v The Borgata battle began in 2012, when Ivey and his sidekick, Cheung Yin ‘Kelly’ Sun, won $9.6m using ‘edge-sorting’ techniques while playing high stakes baccarat sessions at the Atlantic City resort.
According to Pempus’s research ‘edge-sorting’ tipped a 1% casino edge into as 6.8% Ivey and Sun edge. The Borgata sued Ivey after they learned how the 10-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, had done something similar at Genting’s Crockford’s Casino in London’s Mayfair.
The Borgata Winning on Points
In 2016, U.S. District Court Judge, Noel Hillman, found that Ivey and Sun breached a contract with the Borgata on the notion that the pair broke the rules of New Jersey’s Casino Control Act, and ordered them to return their winnings.
Ivey’s legal team fought against the decision.
The Borgata went after Ivey’s assets first in New Jersey and then in Nevada only to find that Ivey doesn’t have any assets in either state. The best the Borgata got was confiscating Ivey’s $124,410 purse for finishing eighth in the 2019 WSOP Poker Player’s Championship (PPC).
“Following oral argument in this case on September 17, 2019, this matter was referred to the Third Circuit’s Appellate Mediation Program,” the filing stated. “The Parties participated in the mediation program, and they have now reached a settlement.”
There are conditions.
Some say a great writer should allow their reader to figure some things out.
Good luck.
“The Parties’ settlement is conditioned on the District Court’s vacatur of certain orders and decisions that it entered in the lower court proceedings,” the filing stated. “If the District Court grants the vacatur, then the Parties’ settlement can proceed and the Parties would stipulate to a dismissal of this appeal. If the District Court fails to grant the vacatur, then the settlement may fail, and the Parties may seek this Court’s adjudication of this appeal. For the foregoing reasons, the Parties respectfully request the Court to stay these appellate proceedings and partially remand this matter to the District Court to consider and adjudicate Defendant-Appellant Ivey’s motion to vacate.”
The filing didn’t disclose details of the settlement.
It seems the pending movie, now has an ending.
The world is facing unprecedented decisions and quandaries, but for a segment of the high stakes stratum, life motors on as usual with one man, in particular, finding Sochi is as sweet as figgy pudding.
Phil Ivey conquered a 55-entrant field in Event #7: $50,000 Short-Deck at the partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series, a hop, skip and a jump away from finishing runner-up to Wai Kin Yong in the previous $50,000 Short-Deck event.
It’s the first tick in Ivey’s win column since beating Daniel “Jungleman” Cates, heads-up, in an HKD 250,000 Short-Deck event at the 2018 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro. It’s not that Ivey’s been in stealth mode for no reason. He’s had his reasons.
Appearances at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), partypoker MILLIONS World, and now Sochi, prove that Ivey’s tool cupboard door is wide open. Let’s hope he doesn’t shut it for the foreseeable future.
Ivey’s win sees him move above the $30m mark in live tournament earnings, replacing Daniel Colman in the 11th spot, a blob of spit away from Steve O’Dwyer in tenth.
Here is how Ivey took this one down.
The Nutshell Action
Final Table Seat Draw
Seat 1: Sam Greenwood – 950,000
Seat 2: Phil Ivey – 3,515,000
Seat 3: Sergi Reixach – 2,915,000
Seat 4: Michael Soyza – 5,120,000
Seat 5: Lee Wai Kiat – 2,540,000
Seat 6: Seth Davies – 855,000
The day began with Event #6’s bubble boy leading the final six players. Michael Soyza did participate in the first big hand of the final, but his role was minor. The main cast members were Seth Davies and Sergi Reixach.
Soyza limped from under the gun, holding KdJh, and Seth Davies raised to 450,000 holding AdQc. The action then fell to Sergi Reixach who moved all-in holding AcKc. Davies called, and Soyza folded leaving a showdown with Davies at risk, and a queen on the river saved him.
The chip leader may have played a supporting role in the first big hand, but he was all over the second one.
Sam Greenwood moved all-in for 1,050,000 from under the gun holding KdQs, and Soyza called with pocket jacks. Greenwood did flop a second king, but it arrived alongside a third jack for Soyza, and the Canadian, making his third final table, became the first player to leave this one.
Then we lost Reixach.
Phil Ivey opened to the hijack for 300,000 with AhTh and then called when Reixach moved all-in for 1,260,000 holding the superior AdQh. After some math, Ivey made the call, and the man many youngsters thought was a fable, flopped and rivered a few more tens to send the Spaniard to the rail.
Soyza took his second scalp when eliminating Seth Davies in fourth. Davies made it 800,000 to play from the cutoff holding As7s, and then called after Soyza moved all-in holding AdQc. No sevens, spades or liferafts arrived to rescue Davies, and he fell out of the loop.
Lee Wai Kiat doubled through the chip leader when Ah8h bettered the pocket tens of Soyza. A flopped ace taking the role of the hammer to the head.
After that double-up, Kiat went on to take the chip lead from Soyza before losing it to Ivey. The compelling three-handed play ended when Soyza called from the hijack holding queens and called again when Kiat moved all-in holding JsTs. Soyza needed the third ten on the flop, after Kiat turned a jack, and he would take a 9.6m>6.3m chip lead into the heads-up phase against Ivey.
Heads-Up
The pair traded blows until Ivey landed one that took the puff out of Soyza’s guts.
With the action at 150,000/300,000, Soyza limped into the pot holding 9c8d and called when Ivey raised to 1,000,000 holding KhQh. The dealer placed a receding hairline producing flop of Jh9h7d onto the flop, and Ivey put Soyza all-in. The call came, and Ivey rivered the nut flush to take a commanding chip lead.
Then, down to ten button antes, Soyza flung them across the line after Ivey had set him in holding Ah6h. Soyza called with Kd7s, and although he flopped the lead with a second king, Ivey caught up by the river, securing a flush for his first title in yonks.
ITM Results
Phil Ivey – $856,050
Michael Soyza – $561,780
Wai Kiat Lee – $374,520
Seth Davies – $267,520
Sergi Reixach – $214,010
Sam Greenwood – $160,510
Dmitriy Kuzmin – $133,760
Thai Ha – $107,000
While
the Chinese continue to draw killer glances from random people waiting to board
aircraft the world over, one citizen from the great red nation is used to it.
Awkwafina
has drawn stares like a baby mermaid in a specimen jar since she starred in
2018’s Warner Bros’ ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ and the poker community is soon to join
the trend.
The
Chinese-star will star in a forthcoming flick based on Phil Ivey’s edge-sorting
debacle. The movie carries the tentative title of “The Baccarat
Machine,” named after an article of the same name penned by Michael Kaplan
for Cigar Aficionado.
Ever
since, Phil Ivey and Cheung Yin “Kelly” Sun fleeced the casinos for
millions playing baccarat (before being caught, and forced to return or renege
on those millions), the focus has been on the former king of poker.
Not
anymore.
Like
the new steak bake vegan option in Greggs bakery, the public is about to get an
entirely different taste.
The
movie will focus on the cunning and skills of Cheung Yin “Kelly” Sun,
the mastermind behind the edge-sorting tactics that earned her the reputation
as one of the most accomplished and feared gamblers in the world.
SK
Global, the production company behind Crazy Rich Asians, will finance and
produce the new movie, and joint CEO’s John Penotti and Charlie Corwin spoke of
their delight at casting Awkwafina in the role of Sun.
“We
can’t think of a better way to start this project than by announcing that our
friend Awkwafina has come on board,” SK Global co-CEO John Penotti said,
“she is uniquely equipped to bring Kelly to life onscreen and will infuse
the role with genuine humour and humanity. Along with our partners at Sharp,
we’re thrilled to bring this unbelievable story to the screen.”
The
“Sharp” that Penotti refers to is the sharp in ‘Sharp Independent
Pictures.’ Lovelace scriptwriter, Andy Bellin, is also going to pen this one.
Awkwafina is the only confirmed cast member.
Awkwafina
Since
becoming a crazy rich Asian, Awkwafina has starred in the woeful but widespread
Jumanji: The Next Level alongside poker fan Kevin Hart, and recently won a
Golden Globe for Best Lead Actress in a Musical or Comedy for ‘The Farewell.’
She also stars in Comedy Central’s ‘Awkwafina is Nora From Queens.’
The Baccarat Machine in a Nutshell
You’ve
heard it all before, so a recap is as useful as a dessert wine, but here’s the
nutshell version in case someone new is tuning in.
Cheung
Yin “Kelly” Sun learned that she could gain an edge at the Baccarat
tables by noticing slight imperfections in the top design of Gemaco
cards.
As it
got harder and harder for Sun to get action, she befriended Phil Ivey, and the
pair took Crockford Casino in Mayfair, London, and the Borgata Hotel Casino
& Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey for millions of dollars.
Crockfords
were the first to smell a rat, refusing to wire him his frozen £7.7m winnings.
When the story began circulating the associated press, representatives from the
Borgata perked up an ear and eyeball. A lawsuit slipped into the equation with
Ivey and the Borgata going at it tooth and nail, the upshot of which is Ivey
has to return $10.1m in Baccarat winnings.
The
Borgata trial is somewhere in the court appeal process.
So far,
Ivey has lost every round.
There are no animals here.
If there were, there would be anarchy.
A man, comb protruding from his top pocket, walks toward the counter swinging his cane like Charlie Chaplin. A kid, eating baked beans, steps from side to side, preventing the piss from finding a home in his pants. Two teenagers play rock, paper, scissors to see who will pay for the vegan breakfasts.
But there are no animals.
When I think of the word ‘WORLD’, I don’t think of cathedrals, crowns and the smell of cloves. I think of the animals that our greed has driven off the face of this earth since 1970.
People like us, do things like this.
Since Paul, Ringo and John went their separate ways, humanity has wiped out 60% of the world’s species.
60%.
For what?
For land.
For meat.
For clothes.
For fun.
That leaves 40% ducking, diving and trying to evade death. At least 394 of them are sharks, and this week, they have been swimming in a cove at the Baha Mar Resort in the Bahamas.
Welcome to the partypoker Caribbean Poker Party (CPP), and MILLIONS World.
partypoker announced the $25,500 buy-in event in April; promising to invest $10m before going all Snow White and the Seven Dwarves with online satellite promotions.
Let’s call it a stretch goal.
By the end of Day 1A, I imagine there were a few shredded nerves within the corridor of power at partypoker when only 77-players turned up to play. 49 escaped with ribs, femurs and breastplates intact, and Chance Kornuth had more blood on his clothes than most, ending the night with the chip lead. A certain Steve O’Dwyer also emerged in one piece, sticking 830,000 chips into a plastic bag, good enough for 41 big blinds.
Then came the big one.
Day 1B.
The $10m cliffhanger.
Had the partypoker marketing machine made the MILLIONS sound mint?
205 players entered, taking the toll to 282, and with four levels left of registration time reserved for Day 2, the team was going to need a whole lot of crazy sharks with money to burn. 59 players made it through the day, and the Brazilian, Geraldo Cesar had the chip lead. A certain, Roger Teska ended the day with 1,170,000.
Remarkably, a further 112 players entered in the first four levels of Day 2, bringing the final number to 394-players, $150,000 shy of the $10m Guarantee, and I would say that’s close enough that we don’t have to mention any of those smelly smoky things from Havana.
39 players would receive a $35,000 profit, and three would bank seven-figure scores with the winner securing $2m. Day 2 ended with 59 in the hunt for that incredible sum of money, and it was on this day that O’Dwyer took the tournament by the scruff of the neck.
O’Dwyer flew into the Bahamas on the back of a reasonably quiet World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), only cashing once (13/95 in the €100k), but he did win both the £10k & £25k High Rollers at MILLIONS UK in Dusk till Dawn (DTD) for close to £800,000. And outside of the live realm, O’Dwyer had also pocketed $1.1m winning partypoker POWERFEST and PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) events. There were few in this competition with a bite as fierce as O’Dwyer.
The former European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final Champion, began Day 3 with the chip lead, and still had it going into the final table at the end of ten levels of play. Unofficial Final Table Chip Counts
1. Steve O’Dwyer – 81,275,000
2. Ben Tollerene – 74,750,000
3. Joao Vieria – 42,675,000
4. Andras Nemeth – 42,675,000
5. Niall Farrell – 35,525,000
6. Rainer Kempe – 34,325,000
7. Roger Teska – 34,200,000
8. Charles La Boissoniere – 26,225,000
9. Paul Tedeschi – 22,475,000
Let’s get to it.
Flesh & Bones: The Final Table Feast
David Vamplew’s doppelganger, Paul Tedeschi, came into the final day as the shortest stack in the room, but that changed soon after the cards went into the air. The Frenchman doubled through O’Dwyer KK>JJ. The final nine players blinked, and Tedeschi had gone from short-stack to the biggest stack in the room.
Then we lost our first player.
Tedeschi opened to 2.5m holding pocket kings, and the card dead Joao Vieira moved all-in for 16-bigs holding pocket jacks. A crocodile snap later, and the dealer was swiftly moving through a jackless flop, turn and river, and Vieira walked over to the cash desk to collect his $250,000.
Then we lost the Triple Crown winner, Niall Farrell.
O’Dwyer opened to 2.6m on the button with A6hh hiding underneath his fingerprints. Farrell, shoved for eight big blinds in the next seat, holding pocket deuces, and Roger Teska reshoved holding pocket eights in the big blind. O’Dwyer folded, and five community cards later, the table was minus the beast from the North.
A scarf followed Farrell to the rail.
O’Dwyer pumped the pot up to 2.5m from midfield holding AJo and then called when Rainer Kempe moved all-in from the button for 12 big blinds holding KJo. An ace on the flop sorted that mess out, and Kempe was finally able to show the vampires a little Aorta.
Six became five when we lost Ben Tollerene.
Tollerene opened to 3.5m with pocket sevens from the hijack position. Charles La Boissonniere called with the other two sevens, as did Paul Tedeschi with A9hh, and then Teska put the cougar amongst the pigeons by moving all-in for 29.3m, and only Tollerene made the call. The flop rained down 9d8d5c, giving Teska the lead, but handing Tollerene a gutshot. The 6d gave Tollerene that straight, but a cruel 4d on the river handed Teska a flush, leaving Tollerene with chip dust, and Andras Nemeth sucked it up in the very next hand.
Then O’Dwyer took command once more.
The American opened to 3.7m holding AK and then called after Andras Nemeth moved all-in for 71.5m holding pocket nines. It was a chip leading pot, and it went the way of O’Dwyer when an ace landed on the flop. Chip Standings Four-Handed
1. Steve O’Dwyer – 220,700,000
2. Paul Tedeschi – 77,300,000
3. Charles La Boissonniere – 52,000,000
4. Roger Teska – 44,100,000
Teska emerged to become O’Dwyer’s primary pain in the arse when he took most of Tedeschi’s chips in a pocket pair versus bigger pocket pair set up, and then O’Dwyer took his head when K7o beat A2o thanks to a seven on the river.
Then O’Dwyer took the chips and momentum into a heads-up clash against Teska when he took chunks from the regally named La Boissoniere. La Boissoniere opened to 6.2m on the button holding J6hh, and O’Dwyer defended the big blind with QTo. The players checked through to the turn on QdJd7s7c, O’Dwyer led for 10m, and La Boissoniere made the call. The river was the 2c. O’Dwyer bet 26m, and La Boissoniere made the call with the weaker two pair hand. That hand left La Boissoniere as the short-stack, and he passed them to Teska when his pocket nines failed to escape a bear trap laid by Q7o. Heads-Up
Steve O’Dwyer – 312,000,000
Roger Tesak – 82,000,000
O’Dwyer had led the field since the end of Day 2. He was the man to beat. A live tournament specialist with a near 4:1 chip lead over a man who rarely plays these things.
But this is poker.
In one of the first hands of heads-up action, O’Dwyer was five cards away from the win when he found a cooler spot KK v QQ only for Teska to flop a queen to give him the chip lead.
Then, in the final hand of what turned out to be a brilliant tournament for the organisers, O’Dwyer moved in with pocket fives, Teska looked him up holding T8cc, and an eight on the flop brought O’Dwyer’s reign of terror to an end.
The win was only Teska’s second of his career, after winning a 2009 event in the Bellagio for $26,095. His previous best performance came in 2011 when he finished fourth in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship for $371,665.
O’Dwyer will be disappointed to have come so close, but he’s played in enough of these things to accept when a $1.3m defeat is a win. O’Dwyer has now won close to $6m in live tournament earnings in 2018, a million more than he has ever won before. His combined all-time live tournament haul of $26,280,416 takes him above Phil Ivey in the All-Time Live Tournament Rankings where he is now ranked #8.
We may be in the midst of humanity’s sixth great extinction, but one species that doesn’t seem ready to perish quite yet are poker’s high rollers, and who would have thought that when the likes of O’Dwyer began playing $25k events with the frequency of $1k events just a few short years ago.
Here are the final table results. Final Table Results
1. Roger Teska – $2,000,000
2. Steve O’Dwyer – $1,300,000
3. Charles La Boissoniere – $1,000,000
4. Paul Tedeschi – $700,000
5. Andras Nemeth – $550,000
6. Ben Tollerene – $450,000
7. Rainer Kempe – $350,000
8. Niall Farrell – $300,000
9. Joao Vieira – $250,000
The Bahamas is going to get a tad busy in November.
Tiger Woods, the Phil Ivey of golf, is in town, leading 16 of the world’s best 23 players in The Hero World Challenge, and partypoker LIVE has set up camp in the Baha Mar Resort, Nassau, for their annual Caribbean Poker Party (CPP).
The first two flights of the $25,500 MILLIONS World are in the books. The event created as a direct response by PokerStars to build a $25,000 buy-in, PokerStars Player’s No-Limit Hold’em Championship, pulled in 77-entrants on Day 1A, and 205-entrants on Day 1B, for a combined 282-runners. Late registration is open for the first four levels of Day 2, and as they are more than 100-players shy of the $10m Guarantee, one suspects the CPP begins with a healthy dose of free money.
Here are the top five chip stacks going into Day 2.
1. Geraldo Cesar – 4,315,000
2. Chance Kornuth – 3,840,000
3. Calvin Anderson – 3,700,000
4. Isaac Haxton – 3,660,000
5. Andreas Eiler – 3,645,000
Also on the CPP roster is a $50,000 Super High Roller and a $250,000 Super-Duper High Roller.
Two players who made it through to Day 2 of the $25,500 MILLIONS World are Sam Soverel (1,200,000) and David Peters (900,000), and if you have a few bucks to spare, it may be worth a punt if you can find a book on the event.
Soverel and Peters were the stars of the ARIA Poker Room’s recent Fall Madness. The series consisted of seven events, three of which had buy-ins of $25k+
Event #1: $10,500 Pot-Limit Omaha (Anthony Alberto – $128,800)
Event #2: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em (Jared Jaffee – $132,000)
Event #3: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck (Sam Soverel – $81,000)
Event #4: $26,000 No-Limit Hold’em (Stephen Chidwick – $283,500)
Event #5: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck (Sam Soverel – $102,600)
Event #6: $52,000 No-Limit Hold’em (Matthias Eibinger – $575,000)
Event #7: $103,000 No-Limit Hold’em (David Peters – $1,104,000)
Here are the updated High Roller of the Year Top 5 Spots.
1. Sam Soverel – 1,560
2. David Peters – 1,325
3. Cary Katz – 1,255
4. Justin Bonomo – 1,025
5. Dan Smith – 1,025
Remember, the HR Series only includes tournaments held at ARIA or ARIA’s partner casinos, and the top five will avoid the Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) lottery should they choose to pay the $300,000 buy-in, which I am sure they all will.
Finally, the World Poker Tour (WPT) and partypoker LIVE completed the first joint event of their new four-year deal. WPT Montreal took place at the Playground Poker Club, and despite not having a High Roller in the schedule, several of the mob put up a decent showing – Sorel Mizzi finished third, Mike Leah finished 18th, and that man David Peters was at it again finishing 83rd.
The Best of the Rest
Moving from the live arena to the digital one, and Fedor Holz will stream his involvement in the $5,300 partypoker MILLIONS Online Main Event on Twitch. The $20m GTD event promises to be the most significant ever held online and runs 25 Nov through 5 Dec. Holz is a member of the No-Limit Gaming stream team, a poker/esports streaming team created by the former Triton Poker Series Macau Six-Handed Champion, Stefan Schillhabel.
PokerStars has extended their online High Roller schedule. While the buy-ins might not feature in the $25k+ realm you are used to reading about here; they are the highest buy-ins that you will find week-in-week-out in any online poker room.
Here are the events for Mon, Wed & Sat.
$530, $150k GTD Bounty Builder High Roller
$530, $50k GTD Daily 500
$530, $50k GTD Daily Supersonic
$1,050, $100k GTD Daily Warm Up
$1,050, $100k – $225k Daily Themed $1k
$1,050, $100k Daily Cooldown
On Tue, Thu & Sun there is also a $530 Omania High Roller.
Each Sunday, the Daily Themed $1k turns into a $2,100 Sunday High Roller, the buy-in for the Sunday Cooldown inches north to $2,100, and the Supersonic moves up to $1,050.
In other news, Philipp Gruissem appeared on The Chip Race podcast this week. The two-time WPTAlpha8 winner talked about the effect that ego played during his meteoric rise to fame, drugs, and effective altruism.
Check it out here.
Dan Smith is donating 5% of anything that he makes in the $25,000 MILLION World and $250,000 Super-Duper High Roller at the partypoker CPP. The recent WPT DeepStacks Joberg winner Maria Ho immediately declared she would join him.
One area Smith might want to take a look at is smoking. There are 9 million deaths directly contributed to smoking, and Smith recently asked on Twitter if there were any two packs a day poker players? It turns out that Doyle Brunson used to eat two packs a day for breakfast.
Dietrich Fast is one of the players who recently took advantage of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) by removing his content from Hendon Mob. Poker stat fanatics were undoubtedly angry about the WPT Champions’ decision, including an old guy from Scotland.
Meanwhile in scotland, edingburgh. Im crossing a street and an older guys ran me over. He mumbeled im sorry and i just gave him a look. He continued with „i said i am sorry fucking cunt.“ now im in love with scotland
And we end with a song.
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Erik Seidel. Happy birthday to you.
And that’s this week’s Pinnacle.
I have Blu Tack stains on my wall.
I should sue.
I used it because its sole purpose, the only reason it exists, is so I can stick things on the wall. So I did. A butterfly, a spider sitting on his cobweb, a dragon circling a volcano mid-spew, and a snake. Mary will be over in an hour to try her best to rob me of my deposit, and here I am squeezing lemon over the oily residue as I know she will do everything in her power to rob me.
Five thousand miles away, 27 people have paid a million bucks to play poker. The contrast is as sharp as Mary’s lizard like tongue. Six remain. There is a $10m prize at stake. And one man, the same man as always, sticks to the top of the chip counts like my stubborn pieces of blue.
I can’t imagine what it would feel like to pay a million bucks, play for two days, get down to the final six players, and still be a million bucks in the hole, but that’s the situation as Day 2 of the Big One for One Drop ends in Las Vegas.
This is what they are playing for. The Gold
$10,000,000
$6,000,000
$4,000,000
$2,800,000
$2,000,000
Here’s the tale of wonder and woe. The Tale of Wonder and Woe Level 11: 50,000/100,000/100,000
Brian Rast, Byron Kaverman and Rainer Kempe all believe the Day 2 50 big blind strategy is best.
The first person to bust on Day 2 was Adrian Mateos. The Spaniard got into a spat with Fedor Holz on the turn in an upraised pre-flop pot. The board showed ThTs7d3h when Mateos moved all-in and Holz called. Mateos held KT for trip tens, but Holz showed down pocket sevens for the flopped boat. Mateos was up shit creek without a boat or a paddle.
Phil Ivey moves ominously into the chip lead like an iceberg the size of Australia floating towards 20 penguins cuddled together on a sheet of ice the size of a surfboard.
Rainer Kempe had the shortest One Drop experience of anyone who took part over two days. The German star got it in pre-flop with pocket queens, only for David Einhorn to turn over the rockets. Kempe didn’t last a level.
Non-professional poker players were as rare as homeless guys without a dog, and we lost one in the first level in the shape of Meditor Capital Management Founder, Talal Shakerchi. Once again it was Holz taking the role of playground bully when his AK found an ace on the turn, to beat Shakerchi’s pocket nines in a race to the death after a pre-flop all-in encounter.
Jason Koon doubled through Stephen Chidwick, KK>JJ on a Td4c3d flop, and the Global Poker Index (GPI) #1 put the last of his change in the middle against Matthew Siegal only for pocket aces to swallow pocket sixes like Jonah and the whale.
Level 12: 60,000/120,000/120,000
No eliminations, but Mikita Badziakouski found himself short before doubling through Nick Petrangelo K6o>AJs after flopping a six. Level 13: 80,000/160,000/160,000
Despite that double up, the Belarusian was the first player of Level 13 to leave his DXRacer chair after running AJs, into the pocket kings of Rick Salomon.
The next to person to go bump in the night was the former Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Champion, Brian Last. Last got it in with AK versus the QQ of Petrangelo and the Q77 flop looked like a nuclear warhead. The 6s on the turn drawing a line under Rast’s participation in the event.
Then we lost the 2014 runner-up.
The action folded to Daniel Negreanu in the small blind. The Canadian moved all-in, holding T7s, and Steffen Sontheimer called from the big blind holding A6o. The board offered no solace to Kid Poker who was still steaming after missing the first hand after the break due to a communication issue.
We were down to the final two tables, and Fedor Holz held the chip lead with Rick Salomon, David Einhorn, Erik Seidel and Nick Petrangelo pressing.
David Einhorn takes the lead after winning a decent chunk from Phil Ivey, and then Koon takes those Ivey chips by doubling through the philanthropist JJ>AK.
Koon tried the same trick with Justin Bonomo a few hands later resulting in the opposite effect. Koon moved all-in holding pocket tens, Bonomo called with queens, and the man wearing the Never Die cap, died.
Then we lost the 2017 Poker Masters Champion.
Sontheimer opened from the button, Dan Smith moved all-in from the small blind, and the man with the purple jacket made the call against the man wearing a blue one. It was AQ for Sontheimer, pocket sevens for Smith, and the pair held.
Level 14: 100,000/200,000/200,000
The first man to leave the contest in Level 14 was Matthew Siegal. It was a three-bet pot, with Siegel the aggressor, and Justin Bonomo playing ball. The flop came down QdTh3h and Siegal moved all-in. Bonomo made the call holding KJs for the open-ended straight draw, and Siegal held AKo for the Broadway straight draw, and ace high. The turn was the ace, giving Bonomo his straight, and Siegal was out. Bonomo was the new chip leader.
Bonomo was like a bloodsucking leech by this point, the next person to be drained of life was Dominik Nitsche. The pair got it in with the German holding AQ, and Bonomo showing the dominating AK, and five cards later the SHRB Champ moved over the 30 million chip mark.
From one SHRB Champ to another and Christoph Vogelsang found a fortunate double up against his compatriot Fedor Holz. Vogelsang’s K3s finding a three on the flop when all-in against AK.
Then Ivey doubled through Bonomo.
In an upraised pre-flop pot, Bonomo put Ivey all-in on the turn with the board showing 7d3d3hQc, and the legend called with AA. Bonomo showed AQ for a less significant two pairs.
Level 15: 120,000/240,000/240,000
Ivey’s topsy-turvy period continued when he lost a race against Einhorn TT<AK to double up the savvy businessman. And then Erik Seidel eliminated Vogelsang in a cooler.
Seidel made it 550k from the cutoff, and the German defended the big blind. The flop was Js4d3c, Seidel bet 1.5m, Vogelsang shoved for around a million more and the New Yorker made the call. Vogelsang showed J4o for top two pair, and Seidel turned over pocket fives. The ace on the turn opened up wheel possibilities for Seidel, and the 2d on the river turned those possibilities into a hard fact which Siedel used to bludgeon Vogelsang over the head with until he was no more.
Then we lost the Poker Central creator.
Cary Katz moved all-in holding A6o from late position, and Dan Smith mad the call from the big blind holding 87o, and flopped a seven to send Katz to the rail.
We had our unofficial final table.
Here were the chip counts.
Justin Bonomo – 25,400,000
Nick Petrangelo – 18,880,000
Erik Seidel – 15,980,000
Fedor Holz – 15,455,000
Rick Salomon – 14,425,000
Dan Smith – 14,085,000
David Einhorn – 12,930,000
Byron Kaverman – 12,135,000
Phil Ivey – 5,710,000
The last action of the level saw Einhorn find another double up, this time AA versus the K5o of Bonomo.
Level 16: 150,000/300,000/300,000
Byron Kaverman doubled through Seidel, AK>QQ, after a turn landed on the turn. And then the Poker Gods handed Seidel a cooler when he got it in holding the nuts on Td9h8d (Quo), facing off against the flush draw of Einhorn (Q9dd), and the 4d landed on the river to send the experienced Seidel to the rail.
The final seven players were happy to see the back of Phil Ivey. The one time greatest player in the world got it in holding AJ, but Bonomo woke up with kings, and Ivey was out in eighth place.
Level 17: 200,000/400,000/400,000
No action to speak of.
Level 18: 250,000/500,000/500,000
Seeking an unprecedented third final table, Salomon doubled through Smith when his ATo beat the KQo of his ten gallon hat wearing opponent, and then we had our final table, when Bonomo eliminated Petrangelo 99>A8o.
Final Table
Justin Bonomo – 48,950,000
Fedor Holz – 22,125,000
Dan Smith – 21,450,000
Rick Salomon – 19,650,000
David Einhorn – 12,300,000
Byron Kaverman – 10,525,000
The Paul Phua Poker team will be filming interviews with top pros at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Montenegro on July 16-20. Paul Phua explains how you can be part of the action
Some of the world’s top poker pros will be travelling to Montenegro on July 16-20 for the Triton Super High Roller Series, and Paul Phua Poker will be bringing you tournament news and interviews from this key event.
At the Triton SHR Series Manila in February, the Paul Phua Poker School secured video interviews on poker strategy with Phil Ivey, Dan Colman, Dan Cates, Wai Kin Yong and Rui Cao.
The Paul Phua Poker team will again be filming at the Triton SHR Series Montenegro. And this time, we are giving you the chance to put your own questions to the pros!
Would you ask Phil Ivey about his stone-cold bluffs? Would you ask Tom “Durrrr” Dwan about heads-up strategy? Or have you a general question about poker strategy to ask the experts?
You tell us!
Follow me on Twitter at @PaulPhuaPoker to keep up with the action, and join in with our Twitter chat at #PhuaTriton. To ask questions of the pros, Tweet your question with the hashtag #PhuaTriton. We don’t yet know exactly who will be playing, but availability permitting, I’ll make sure some of the best get answered.
Top pros play the Triton Poker Series
This is one of the pros’ favourite tournaments – mine, too. Whereas the Main Event of the World Series of Poker has become so crowded that some wonder if any top player can win it again, the Triton Series has high buy-ins that give the pros a chance to shine. For instance:
Fedor Holz won the Triton SHR Series Cali Cup in 2006 for $3m.
Daniel Colman won the Triton SHR Series Paranaque 6-Max Event in 2017 for $3.6m, after a heads-up battle with Erik Seidel.
Koray Aldemir won the Triton SHR Series Paranaque Main Event in 2017 for $1.3m, with Dan “Jugleman” Cates coming third.
Phil Ivey placed fifth in the Triton SHR Series Paranaque $200k NLH in 2016 for $656,000.
Wai Kin Yong has taken down two titles and a sixth place finish in different Triton tournaments for more than $3m.
And I myself, Paul Phua, have cashed in three Triton SHR Series tournaments for more than $800,000.
About the Triton Super High Roller Series
The Triton poker series started in January 2016 with the Triton SHR Cali Cup. The Main Event broke WPT records as its highest ever buy-in, with 52 players buying in for £200,000 each.
Ever since, the high buy-ins to the Triton poker series have attracted some of the top pros, as well as high-rolling businessmen who want to measure themselves against the world’s finest. At these high levels of poker, most of the players know each other. The recently revamped Maestral Resort & Casino, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea in Montenegro, will be full of animated conversation and lively cash side-games.
In addition, the Triton SHR Series raises a lot of money for worthy causes. All proceeds from the tournaments, after expenses (many of which are defrayed by sponsors), go to a named charity. Past beneficiaries have included The Red Cross and Project Pink.
We know that most poker players can only dream of affording the buy-in for these tournaments. Joining in with the Twitter chat at #PhuaTriton is the next best thing.
Dan Colman, interviewed here for the Paul Paul Poker School, is ranked third in the world in live tournament earnings. Paul Phua picks three key tips on poker strategy from the video
A few weeks ago the Paul Phua Poker School presented a video interview with Dan Colman, the poker prodigy who has won more than $28m in live tournaments at the age of 26. Watch that video, and read about Dan Colman’s poker career, here.
I am delighted now to put out this second video interview between myself, Paul Phua, and the reclusive young poker pro. These are some of the important lessons to be learned from it:
Adapt to changing poker strategies
Dan Colman’s chief message here is one close to my own heart. You know that famous phrase, “poker takes a few minutes to learn, and a lifetime to master”? It’s true! I have played for years, against top pros like Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and Dan Cates, and still find there is so much more to learn. Part of that is because, as Dan Colman says here, “poker is always evolving”. He doesn’t mean the rules of poker, he means poker strategy.
Terms like 3-bet and 4-bet and Game Theory Optimal, or the software that pros use to analyse the mathematically perfect strategy and the odds in any given poker hand, were unknown when more experienced pros such as Phil Ivey were starting out. Poker strategy is changing all the time. It’s our aim at Paul Phua Poker to help you keep on top of it. If, like Dan Colman, you are prepared to put in the effort to learn, the rewards can be great.
Seek out poker strategy advice
Also, remember that articles and videos are not in themselves enough. You know that old phrase, “two heads are better than one”? It’s a good idea to seek out the advice of friends who also play poker. It’s even better if you can persuade a more experienced player whom you admire to give you advice on problem hands.
I have been lucky enough to play against some of the best in the world. I am still humble and attentive when players like Tom Dwan comment on a hand I have played, and give tips on how I might improve my poker strategy in the future.
Even Dan Colman, despite his prodigious success, is happy to ask for a second opinion. As he says in our video interview, “A big part is having friends that are very good players and even better than you to where you are telling them a hand or why you did something then they can be critical of it and say, ‘No, I wouldn’t do that, I don’t like your play’. Then you can think ‘Hmm, maybe you’re right’ and then work on that. So it’s important to talk poker with other good players.”
Vary your poker playing style
The other thing I enjoyed in this video interview was talking to Dan Colman about poker playing styles. We all evolve a poker playing style that suits our temperament: some are naturally more aggressive, some naturally tighter. Both styles can be effective when used correctly, against the right opponents at the right time.
But sometimes we must vary our poker playing style. As Dan Colman says in our new video interview, “How I play really depends on the players at my table, as well as my stack size and the payouts [in a tournament], because depending on if there’s a big pay jump and my stack is pretty short I might have to really be cautious and try to advance up the pay ladder. But when you have a big stack you can just put on a lot of pressure and win a lot of pots uncontested.”
There is another point to consider. As written in a previous Paul Phua Poker blog, sometimes we must do the unexpected to make money and win the pot. Or, as Dan Colman, memorably puts it, he will “zig when they think I’m going to zag”. Don’t miss out on future video interviews with the pros. Subscribe for free to the Paul Phua Poker YouTube channel.
Who is Daniel Colman? Poker player profile
Born in 1990, Daniel (Dan) Colman was talent-spotted as a teenager by poker pro Olivier Busquet, who became his mentor
He became the first online hyper-turbo poker player to win more than $1 million in a year
He won his first WSOP bracelet, and $15.3 million, in the Big One for One Drop poker tournament at the age of 22
Daniel Colman has more than $28 million in live poker tournament earnings, ranking him third in the world
In a single year, poker prodigy Dan Colman won $22.4 million in live tournaments and four major titles – aged just 23. He rarely gives interviews, so Paul Phua is delighted to introduce this latest video
The latest video interview for the Paul Phua Poker School is with Daniel Colman, who has one of the most extraordinary rise-to-riches stories in all of poker. He was talent-spotted as a teenager by poker pro Olivier Busquet, after Colman kept calling out his hands while watching him play online. In 2013, Dan Colman became the first online hyper-turbo player to win more than $1 million in a year – what’s more, he managed it in just nine months.
“I don’t see poker as being a sustainable source of income a few years down the road,” Dan said modestly in an interview at the time. It must be one of the only times in his poker career that Dan has been very, very wrong!
The very next year, Dan Colman won the $1m-entry Big One for One Drop tournament, besting Daniel Negreanu heads-up at the end, to win $15.3 million and his first WSOP bracelet. He was just 22 years old.
As if to prove this was no fluke, that year Dan Colman also won the EPT Super High Roller in Monte Carlo for $1.5m; the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event for $1.4m (beating 1,500 players); and the WPT Alpha8 Main Event in London for $950,000; as well as making numerous other final tables. He was named Player of the Year 2014 by Bluff, Card Player and All In magazines.
Drawn to the dark side
Unusually for a player so thrust into the limelight, Dan Colman turned down pretty much every interview request (which makes me extra-excited he agreed to do video interviews with the Paul Phua Poker School). He posted a very thoughtful explanation for this online. He said that though he loves playing poker, he doesn’t like the fact that for him to win, someone else must lose a large sum of money. “I am conflicted,” he wrote. “I capitalise off this game that targets people’s weaknesses. I do enjoy it, I love the strategy part of it, but I do see it as a very dark game.” He still loves to play. “It is a beautiful game when you think about it,” he says in this new video interview with the Paul Phua Poker School. “Just everything matches up perfectly where there are straights, flushes, what beats what.”
But he also still cautions players to be careful with their money. In my previous video interview with Dan Colman, he warned of the dangers of online poker for recreational players. And in this new video profile, he admits that he himself lost money for his first five years of playing – which may give hope to anyone still struggling to master the game!
“I had poor poker bankroll management,” he admits in the interview, and he went boom-and-bust several times before hitting his stride. [Discover my tips on bankroll management here.]
A DIY style of poker
The other interesting thing about Dan Colman is that he is mostly self-taught – with a helping hand from mentors such as Oliver Busquet. Phil Ivey recently said in our video interview that players nowadays have it easier: he learned by trial and error because there was less advice out there on strategy than there is now. Dan went down the same route, but in his case by choice rather than from necessity.
Even now, as Dan says in our video interview, “I’m definitely a field player. I don’t use much math, game theory. I’m very intuitive but, that being said, the guys that are very math based, game theory orientated, I always want to pay attention to what they are doing and try and understand the reasoning behind it.”
Whatever Dan Colman is doing, it’s working. He’s made another $2m-plus in live tournament earnings just this year alone. He’s also one of the nicest, brightest and most articulate people one could meet.
And he is still only 26 years old! More videos from the poker pros will be going live weekly on the Paul Phua Poker YouTube channel. Subscribe if you don’t want to miss out. It’s free!
Poker player Mike Noori’s bet to supersize himself on McDonald’s this weekend is part of a long tradition of outrageous prop bets. From Paul Ivey to Dan Bilzerian, Paul Phua picks out 10 favourites
Starting from today (Friday May 19), poker player Mike Noori has just 36 hours in which to eat $1,000 of McDonald’s food. Many people believe it cannot be done, estimating that he will need to consume about 70,000 calories – the recommended daily amount is less than 3,000! Others say it can: hundreds of thousands of dollars have by now been wagered on the outcome by poker players.
And why is Mike Noori putting his body through this ordeal? Because he was challenged to do so in a prop bet.
Some poker players will gamble on just about anything: whether it’s as small as what the next woman to enter the room will be wearing, or as big as eating several weeks’ worth of food in 36 hours! The most outrageous of these prop bets make great stories. Here are just ten of them, starting with some old-timers:
Titanic Thompson and the golf ball
Titanic Thompson, who hosted the very first World Series of Poker, is one of the most famous gamblers of all time. Sky Masterson, the hero of the musical Guys and Dolls, was based on him. He was no fool: when Titanic Thompson made a prop bet, he always had an angle. He would first secretly count all the watermelons in a truck and later wager, during a seemingly casual conversation with bystanders, that he could guess the exact number. Another time he bet he could throw a walnut over a building, having first secretly weighted it with lead. And when he bet he could drive a golf ball 500 yards, further than any golf pro had managed at that time, he found no shortage of takers for this seemingly impossible feat. But he simply waited till winter, then drove the ball, bouncing, over a frozen lake!
Amarillo Slim and the ping pong battle
Amarillo Slim was one of the great old-school poker players, who won the first of his four WSOP bracelets in 1972. He, too, would bet on almost anything. Perhaps his most famous prop bet was when he challenged Bobby Riggs, a former tennis champ, to a table tennis match. Slim’s one condition was that he could choose the paddles they used. He showed up with two frying pans, having secretly practised with them for months beforehand. He won the match. He successfully repeated the trick years later against a Taiwanese ping-pong champion, though this time his weapon of choice was Coca-Cola bottles!
Brian Zembic and his 38C breast implants
A magician and high-stakes gambler, Brian Zembic was famous for his bizarre prop bets: he lived in a box for a week and in a bathroom for another week. For another bet he slept the night in Central Park with $20,000 on his person. But one prop bet in particular made the headlines. In 1996, for a $100,000 bet, he agreed to have breast implants – 38C, to be precise – and keep them for a year. He even won the $4,500 cost of the operation from a cosmetic surgeon at backgammon. Not only did Zembic go through with it, he kept the implants for two decades. It was only last year that he appeared on the reality TV show, Botched, saying he had finally decided to have them removed.
Antonio Esfandiari and the lunges
What is it with magicians? Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari is also a former magician, and one of the most entertaining people you could share a card table with. His willingness to take a prop bet is legendary, though he often lives to regret it: he once swore off eating bread for a year, but cracked after a few minutes; a bet to remain celibate for a year was cancelled after nine days. But the prop bet that made the headlines, for all the wrong reasons, was one where for 48 hours he was not allowed to walk, only to lunge forward (going down on one knee then the other). It caused him so much pain that at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, rather than face going to the toilet, he made use of an empty water bottle at the table, and was promptly disqualified for “breach of tournament etiquette”. To Antonio Esfandiari’s credit, he offered up a sincere public apology for taking things too far, and donated his $50,000 winnings from the prop bet to charity.
Phil Ivey and the $150,000 steak
Phil Ivey is another player who is never afraid to take a big bet. His golf course wagers with Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu are the stuff of legend, and he famously had a $5 million wager on whether he could win two WSOP bracelets in two years (despite his 10 bracelets overall, he only managed one bracelet in that period). But his craziest prop bet was when Tom Dwan challenged him to go vegetarian for a year. Phil Ivey stood to take down $1 million if he could swear off meat, something he had been thinking of doing anyway. But in the event, Phil Ivey said, he was too busy to work out how to eat healthily, and found eating pasta three times a day affected his poker. So he bought out of the bet after just nine days. The cost of that first juicy steak? $150,000… Read part two of this Top 10, along with the eagerly awaited result of this weekend’s McDonald’s prop bet.
