While the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. poker tournament at the World Series of Poker has increased the visibility of mixed games, there are plenty of poker fans who only know about poker because of televised coverage, which has focused almost exclusively on No Limit Texas Hold'em.
As part of our coverage of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. poker tournament at the WSOP, we're examining each game played in H.O.R.S.E., starting with Limit Hold'em on the first day of the five-day tournament and ending with Seven Card Stud Eight or Better on the tournament's final day. Play $500 match poker bonus.
We talked to five players & women poker pros, each with a WSOP bracelet in a different poker variation included in H.O.R.S.E., and they shared some wisdom on how to play the game and how it fits into the overall structure of a H.O.R.S.E. tournament.
Day Four: Seven Card Stud David Williams is best known for finishing second to Greg Raymer in the 2004 WSOP Main Event. While he fell just short in the big one three years ago, Williams claimed a WSOP bracelet in Seven Card Stud last year. He is one of the top overall players in the world, and plays multiple games well, from No Limit Hold'em to 2-7 Draw. Download poker wallpapers.
CCT: Other than the basic rules and structure of the game, what is the first lesson a player should learn about Seven Card Stud?
David Williams: Don't call with dead cards.
CCT: What is the most common mistake that players, even experienced players, make in Seven Card Stud?
David Williams: Not knowing when to give up and fold on fifth street.
CCT: Do you need to catch cards to play well in Seven Card Stud? Or can you chase people out of pots with well-timed bluffs? Online poker.
David Williams: You generally need to catch well because bluffing is hard in limit poker. Starting with premium hands makes it easier to catch well.
CCT: Are people generally better or worse at playing Seven Card Stud than they are at the other games in H.O.R.S.E?
David Williams: Worse. Stud is the hardest game in the mix.
CCT: How important is Seven Card Stud in the overall structure of a H.O.R.S.E. tournament? Can you be a good H.O.R.S.E. player and be really bad a Seven Card Stud?
David Williams: Three-fifths of the games have a stud base so it's very important. You can still be good at the other four, but it's usually a good idea to be good at all five. Play route 66 poker.
CCT: Conversely, if you are an excellent Seven Card Stud player, how does that impact your chances in a H.O.R.S.E. tournament?
David Williams: Being a good stud player usually translates into the R and E well, so you're good at three games. Stud is also the hardest game, so if you are good at it you have a nice edge over the other players.
Cheung collects first WSOP bracelet Robert Cheung earned $673,628 for winning Event #38, a $1,500 No Limit Hold'em tournament that drew the sixth-largest field in poker history (2,778).
The 46-year old business man from Vancouver, B.C. started taking poker seriously about two years ago, after learning to play the game with his friends.
He learned quickly, finishing fourth in the Lake Tahoe WSOP circuit event earlier this year. This was Cheung's third cash of the Series.
While Cheung won the bracelet, the hearts of poker fans belonged to third-placer finisher Erica Schoenberg. The former model has translated her blackjack skills into a solid play at the felt, netting her first WSOP final table much to the delight of her many railbirds.
She had the final table lead for a time, but eventually succumbed to Cheung and second-place finisher Richard Muchnik. Schoenberg netted $261,646 for her finish while Muchnik collected $417,117
Relative unknown leads H.O.R.S.E event
A player few people have ever heard is now the person everyone in the poker world would like to be. John Hanson, a New Yorker with $21,000 in major poker tournament earnings, is leading the coveted $50,000 H.O.R.S.E World Championship.
Close behind are a few players you'd expect to see.
Toto Leonidas, Eli Elezra and Allen Cunningham are in the top-five, closely followed by David Oppenheim, Mike Matusow and Phil Ivey. Hanson, with $640,000 in chips, has an 80,000-chip lead on the rest of the field. Download poker wallpapers.
Last year's H.O.R.S.E World Championship final duo is still alive. Andy Bloch is sitting in 11th place with $425,000 and defending champion Chip Reese is in 19th place with $332,000.
Only 52 players & women poker pros remain with two days to play, including Phil Hellmuth (13th), Daniel Negreanu (22), Greg Raymer (25) and Annie Duke (39).
Final table set for $1,500 Mixed Hold'em Event #40
Renowned poker author and Full Tilt blogger Michael Craig is the featured attraction in this final nine.
Craig, best known for his books The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King and The Full Tilt Tournament Strategy Guide, can also play. Most of Craig's poker success has come online poker, but he has seemingly learned a few things about live play after years of sweating the pros for a living.
Craig is currently in second chip position, trailing Christoph Niesert.
Fred Goldberg, who was the final table bubble in the 2006 WSOP Main Event, is continuing to prove his skills, cashing for the fifth time at this year's Series. This is also Goldberg's second final table. He is currently in fourth-place. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Other notable finishers included J.C. Tran (14), Phil Gordon (15) and Jeffrey Lisandro (18).
The winner of this event will receive $205,271. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
As if any serious poker player needed another reason to be in Las Vegas next month, PlayersOnly.com will be co-hosting the biggest party of this year’s WSOP with Bluff Magazine – and inviting hundreds of their players to party with them.
PlayersOnly Presents Bluff on the Strip will be held at the Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club, the biggest strip club in Vegas, on Thursday, July 5th – the night before the WSOP Final Poker Tournament begins.
Players expected include David Williams, Robert Williamson, Antonio Esfandari, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Gordon, Gus Hansen, Eric Lindgren and Mike Mizerachi who all attended last year. Download poker wallpapers.
“Gee, I was coming to Vegas anyway,” laughed PO’s first WSOP satellite tournament winner, Robert P. “Winning my way to the WSOP was already a dream come true, they didn’t have to throw a huge party as well!”
Any and all PlayersOnly.com players are welcome to attend. Registered players can pick-up their invitations on a first-come-first-served basis at www.playersonly.com/bluff-las-vegas. Partiers that haven’t registered at PO can do so here first: www.playersonly.com/join.php. Play $500 match poker bonus.
“If you’ve ever been to the infamous Sapphire you know it has some pretty wicked private VIP rooms,” said PO brand manager David Anderson. “A bunch of our VIP players & women poker stars will be enjoying the party from the skyboxes!”
Down below in the 70,000 square foot party venue, there’ll be hundreds of topless servers and gorgeous entertainers as well as heads up route 66 poker matches for lap dances all night long.
“PlayersOnly.com Presents Bluff on the Strip” promises to be a sin-sational kick-off to the 2007 WSOP Main Event. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
Team Bodog poker pro David Williams and women poker star Evelyn Ng have both cashed in events over the past two days at the 2007 World Series of Poker Tournament.
The Team Bodog poker pros are making their mark on the 2007 WSOP with two top 50 finishes in two separate poker tournaments over the last two days for a combined $25,668 in cash winnings.
Coming off his successful stint at the Bellagio, in which he won the $5k no-limit preliminary event at the Bellagio Cup III, Bodog poker pro David Williams ran deep, but not so silent, to a 50th place finish out of 2,315 total players & women poker players. This spot earned him another $11,060 to add to his winnings this week, which total $140,180 between the WSOP and the Bellagio Cup.
In only her third event of the 2007 WSOP, Bodog women poker pro Evelyn Ng fought through a tough field of 827 players to a 25th place finish. This is her first cash of the WSOP but comes in at a solid $14,608. She will stick to no-limit hold’em events for the rest of the WSOP, as this is her game of choice, and has served notice that she is here to play for keeps. Play online poker.
The next event for both players will be the $5,000 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em Tournament that begins on Tuesday.
Bodog Pros All Through To Next Round of WSOP Heads-Up Poker Event
After shaking off the bedlam that was the seat draw for this event, our fearless Team Bodog poker players headed to their assigned tables and proceeded to dominate their opponents. All three are now through to the next round, which has been pushed back (Shock! Horror!) to 6pm PDT.
It only took two hands for Bodog poker pro David Williams to find himself all-in with a nut flush draw over his opponents top pair, King-high flush draw. He had the other guy covered and got to take off a little early and head to the lounge to relax. Download poker wallpapers.
Josh Arieh had a little bit longer battle but successfully managed to put away his opponent to move to the next round. We watched for a little while as Josh handled his business, and, to be honest, were impressed with how the unknown poker player stared down a well-known pro heads-up. Unfortunately for him, you just don’t beat Josh heads-up.
We also got to watch Evelyn Ng play her game. Unfortunately for her, and us, she was stuck out in the “poker suana”. She played very patiently and built her stack, just chipping away until her opponent found himself without much left to stand on. Play route 66 poker.
Stay tuned to our poker blog for more live updates from the 2007 World Series of Poker.
Team Bodog poker pro David Williams took down the $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event at the Bellagio Cup III today.
Besting a final table that included former World Poker Tour champion Roland De Wolfe and fellow WSOP bracelet-holder John Gale, Bodog poker pro David Williams won the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event today at the Bellagio Cup III. The poker tournament eventually came down to a heads-up battle between Williams and poker tournament regular David Dicken, with Williams using his trademark aggressive play to take over the game and emerge victorious. Download poker wallpapers.
For the win, Williams takes home $129,120, a bracelet and a $25,000 buy-in to the WPT World Championship slated for April 2008. The cash at the Bellagio boosts his total career tournament winnings to over $5.7 million. Play online poker.
Immediately after the win, the 27-year-old WSOP bracelet-winner headed back to the Rio where the 2007 WSOP is being held. He was seen trying to buy into the $5,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E event that started three hours ago in the hopes of attaining his real goal: another WSOP bracelet. Unfortunately, he was too late to do so, but we’re guessing he’ll still sleep well knowing he’s padded his bankroll a tad bit more. Tomorrow’s another day and there are still 29 events left in the 2007 World Series of Poker.
WSOP Update: Poker Pro David Williams Relaxed Yet Aggressive
Bodog poker pro David Williams is relaxed and playing very aggressively looking to build his chip stack for a run at the win in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event.
WSOP Update:
Event #25 - $2,000 No Limit Hold’em - The final table is just getting underway here at the Rio for this event. Player vying for the first-place prize of $599,467 are Evan Schwartz, Justin Rollo, Darryl Ronconi, Adam Ross, Ben Ponzio, Danny Noam, David Hewitt, Ken Einiger and Travis Rice. Rice is the chip leader. Play route 66 poker. Where are the women poker pros.
Event #26 - $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. - Play begins today with two six-handed tables. The two biggest names in the field are Phil Ivey and Robert Mizrachi. Phil is looking for his sixth WSOP bracelet and Robert for his second H.O.R.S.E. final table of the 2007 World Series of Poker, he finished six in the $2,500 event. Can Phil Ivey, the oft-described “Tiger Woods of poker“, emerge as champion on the same day that the actual Tiger Woods is looking for another championship at the US Open. We’ll keep you posted. On poker, not golf.
Event #27 - $1,500 No Limit Hold’em - As we mentioned yesterday, Bodog poker pro David Williams is playing very loose-aggressive in this event, obviously looking to make a run at a win instead of passively waiting to just make the money. As such, he is experiencing some big swings up and down the leader board. Right now, he is sitting about mid-field after eliminating a couple of players. We’ll keep you posted on how things go. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Stay tuned to our poker blog for more live updates on Williams’ progress this year at the 2007 WSOP.
Bodog online poker player Johnathan Westra captured the $1,500 preliminary event at the Bellagio Cup III.
Bodog regular play online poker player Johnathan Westra captured the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em preliminary event at the Bellagio Cup III on Tuesday. After battling through a field of 145 players he found himself heads-up against Adam Geyer for the win and hit quad twos on the river to take it down. For the win, Westra gets $94,125, a bracelet and a $25,500 buy-in to the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio in April 2008. Download poker wallpapers.
The successful online poker tournament player first burst into the spotlight when he took down Bodog pro Josh Arieh in one of the weekly TLB heads-up matches. He broke Josh and David Williams‘ 13-week winning streak bringing him $14,000 for the win. From there he started to make a name for himself on the poker tournament circuit taking second in a $1,500 preliminary event at the 2006 Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $131,335. He also finished fourth in the $1,000 preliminary event at the WSOP Circuit event at Caesar’s Palace. Women poker.
Westra will be here at the WSOP for some of the preliminary events and we will catch up with him and bring you live updates on his progress. So stay tuned to our poker blog for more action from the 2007 World Series of Poker.
Proud mom & women poker player, Shirley Williams (background) watches on as son, Bodog pro David Williams, finishes in the money at the 2007 World Series of Poker Tournament.
As the play went hand-to-hand in the $2,500 H.O.R.S.E. event early this morning in anticipation of the money bubble bursting, we were standing on the rail with women poker player, Shirley Williams watching David play. All of a sudden everyone’s attention went to the adjacent table, where some poor guy had found himself in the position of being all-in in the blinds. What very few people noticed in the commotion was that DW himself had pushed in after knowing that the bubble was about to burst on someone else. Play online poker.
David won his hand and pulled his stack back in; the guy at the other table was not so fortunate and went out in 41st. As everyone was getting seated again, John D’Agostino looked over at David and asked him why he would push in and risk finishing out of the money. The answer came, “I don’t care about just cashing, I’m here to win.”
Such is the intensity of David and all the Bodog poker pros. While most people would be pleased with cashing, they are still after WSOP bracelets, never satisfied to rest on their laurels. DW kept pushing his table in his hunt for the win but was crippled when a two-outer hit on the river delivering a sick beat that he never quite recovered from. He went out a few hands later in 31st place with $6,941. Download Poker wallpapers.
True to form he is back out in the field for the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event today looking for bracelet number two. We’ll keep you updated on his progress live from the 2007 World Series of Poker Tournament in our poker blog.
Don’t forget that you have the chance to join David and all of the Bodog pros at the 2007 World Series of Poker by winning a $12,000 WSOP package over at Bodog.com play online poker.
Bryan Micon displaying the bobble head of Bodog poker pro David Williams.
Ok, well maybe not ALL the rage, but Bodog pro David Williams’ “mini me” has been spotted at a table in the $1,500 No Limit Six-Handed event that began today at the 2007 World Series of Poker Tournament. Check out David's poker wallpapers.
Self-proclaimed “King of All Degenerates” Bryan Micon, who plays online poker, was seen this afternoon proudly displaying the bobble head in front of him next to his chip stack. Micon is also one of the moderators of the NeverWinPoker forum and a popular online poker player.
As both Micon and DW are playing the same event, David could end up playing against a tiny representation of himself, which could “unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe” (10 points if you guess the quote), which would be bad.
We’ll keep you posted with live updates from the 2007 WSOP in our poker blog and let you know if impending doom is imminent.
David Williams is one of 3,800 players registered to play the first $1,500 buy-in event at this year’s WSOP.
The cards are in the air for the first of six $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold ‘em events at the 2007 World Series of Poker and the number of entrants on the receiving end of those cards is ridiculous. The unofficial count from the official provider is 3,000 entrants plus approximately 800 alternates, making this event about 1,000 players heavier than the 2,700 who showed up last year.
The hallways were jammed full of alternates waiting for their chance to get in the poker room and the poker room is still jammed full of players trying to make sure their seat isn’t the one that will be filled. Harrah’s is having to use the Amazon room (”poker hangar”), the poker tournament pavillion (the allegedly air-conditioned tent out back of the poker tournament area) and the actual Rio poker room which is located further from here than we’d care to walk to check out the action.
Whereas in yesterday’s event it was not uncommon to see one or two pros at the same table (like Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu seated next to each other), today the room is a sea of unknown faces with pros and women poker players sprinkled liberally throughout. Big names that have been seen in the room include Chad Brown, Mike “The Grinder” Matusow, Phil Hellmuth (who is sitting pretty after hitting the mother of all hands, the royal flush) and Annie Duke - women poker player.
DW is somewhere in the building and playing this event, and when we can fight our way through the crowds and find him, we’ll give you an update on his progress.
Josh Arieh is still in the $5,000 mixed hold ‘em event that was supposed to start at 2pm but has now been pushed back to 4.30pm. Chances are that it will get postponed even more as they will need 900 players gone from Event #3 to have enough tables to start up that poker tourney.
UPDATE: We found him! DW is seated comfortably and pushing his table around. He doubled up a couple of guys (suck outs) with no real damage to his stack at one point but the cards are now coming his way and his stack is growing.
On another note, we saw Phil Hellmuth telling Gavin Smith that he won $18,000 from Doyle Brunson by making three putts in a row in the VIP lounge, or what he was calling the “putting room”.
Team Bodog pro David Williams will be looking to win his second WSOP bracelet this year.
The first event of the 2007 World Series of Poker is underway and the familiar sounds of shuffling chips and the low buzz of conversation can be heard throughout the "poker hangar" at the Rio. The $5,000 buy-in mixed hold ‘em event is kicking things this year and has drawn 451 entrants all vying for the $536,287 first-place prize and the first world championship bracelet of the year. Notable players spotted at the tables include Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Mark Seif, John Juanda and Bodog pros Josh Arieh and David Williams.
We’ll be keeping a tab on these two and Evelyn Ng as they work their way through this field and others over the next seven weeks. This event will be looked at closely as tournament officials, journalists and players alike try to gauge if 2007 will be another record-breaking year for the WSOP. On the logistical side, problems have already started to arise though with the familiar sight of long lines for registration (about a half a mile long and reeking of BO) caused a late start to this first event.
The new "peek" cards that the WSOP is using this year are also being troublesome. While making it easy to peel up the corner of your cards and "peek" at what you have, the tiny numbers and suits in the corner make it difficult for all players to tell what suits have hit on the flop. During a stroll through the poker room we heard a dealer ask if the players were getting used to the cards, the reply came, "they’re the worst thing ever". With refunds being demanded and pros threatening not to play, the solution has come quickly as U.S. Playing Card just announced that they will change the set-up ASAP and get new cards in.
We just got word that the field is already down to 410. Gavin Smith has outlasted Joe Sebok already making us wonder if that will cause any money to change hands in one of their famous prop bets. Other early eliminations include Chris Moneymaker, David "The Dragon" Pham and Allen Cunningham. More anecdotes and updates to follow from the Rio in Las Vegas.
While the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. poker tournament at the World Series of Poker has increased the visibility of mixed games, there are plenty of poker fans who only know about poker because of televised coverage, which has focused almost exclusively on No Limit Texas Hold'em.
