Posts Tagged ‘James Akenhead’
The World Series of Poker Europe is being played in The Casino at the Empire in London, England from September 18 to October 1 and will consist of 4 events total. Many of the faces that came from all around the globe for the WSOP in Las Vegas, Nevada, will take seats at these tables. Just like in the 2009 World Series of Poker tournaments held in Las Vegas at the RIO earlier this year, the World Series of Poker Europe will reward the champion players with gold bracelets. Also added to the line up is the Caesar’s Cup which will pit the best players in the Americas verses the best players on the other side of the ocean. Daniel Negreanu will head the Americas team while Annette Obrestad who won the first WSOPE Main Event at 18, will lead the European team. While there will be no bracelet awarded in the Caesar’s Cup, the winner will have massive bragging rights and a ton of ESPN cameras to witness the whole affair. And Betfair who is presenting the entire event, has added a Million Dollar Freeroll that will have 1 person of a group of 18 qualifiers who won their seats online take home $1 million US dollars for their efforts. This also is not a bracelet event, but with 1 million dollars you can design your own bracelet.
Highly expected to take seats at the tables are Neil “Bad Beat” Channing, Ian Woodley, Howard Lederer, Jesper Hougaard, James Akenhead of the November Nine, Sherkhan Farnood, Andy Bloch, James Keys, Raymond Rahme, Jeff Madsen, Roland DeWolfe, Eric Seidel, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Suriander Sunar and Richard Kellett just to name a few.
In past events, incredible battles have taken place at the WSOPE. The year 2007 saw Annette Obrestad win the largest amount ever for a woman in any sporting event when she won the first Main Event, taking home £1 million pounds or $2,013,102 in U.S. dollars. Also last year saw John Juanda hammer it out for 21 hours at the final table to take the second Main Event title. This is truly an international event with gold bracelets on the arms of champions going home to the countries of Denmark (2), Afghanistan, Germany, Italy, Norway and USA so far.
This will be filmed and shown by ESPN, so don’t think the hot table action is slowing down from Las Vegas as the Main Event gets to the final table. In 2008, players came from 124 nations to participate in tournaments at the RIO. The WSOP has evolved into a global competition, so watch the broadcasts closely. You never know where the next hot player will come from.
The 2009 World Series of Poker’s November Nine from the Main Event are probably the most talented group of players in the post-Moneymaker era of the game. ESPN plans to show Day 8 action from their featured tables which establishes the final table players, but with the numerous commercials that are on the screen every 10 minutes, turning points which allowed the November Nine to get there may not be seen. The 27 players who got to Day 8 included some who were big names on their own like Phil Ivey (winning 2009 WSOP bracelets in events #8 and #25), Jordan Smith (winning a bracelet in Event #36), Antonio Esfandiari and Jonathan Tamayo. Or they were just hot in the WSOP like Ian Tavelli, Billy Kopp, Ben Lamb, Ludovic Lacay and Tommy Vedes. And to keep things interesting there are unknowns like Darvin Moon who the WSOP says will be the next Moneymaker if he takes the title.
Darvin Moon started Day 8 with 20,160,000 chips and finished up with over 56 million, but a major play that helped him get there involved a win over Billy Kopp who also played extremely well. Kopp’s 12th place finish left him so dismayed that he literally ran out of the room before the end of the hand that gave 20 million chips to Moon. Crowd favorite Phil Ivey started out with 11 million chips, fell to as low as 5.4 million before climbing back up to just over 9 million in the end. Ivey who went up and down like a roller coaster, came back late in the day when he busted Jamie Robbins in 11th place earning another 2.35 million for his stack. Steven Begleiter attacked relentlessly on the stacks of other players, taking out Antonio Esfandiari in 24th and also defeating Ian Tavelli in 17th which gave him 13 million chips in that hand, helping to vault him into a final table chair.
Eric Buchman earned his seat by winning many 500,000 to 800,000 sized pots on the way to the final table. Buchman’s largest hand was against Nick Maimone where he won 4.5 million chips to add to his stack. Player Joseph Cada fought and fought hard for his seat, taking as well as he gave. Beginning with 6.5 million he fell to under 3 million and came back to end the day with over 13.2 million chips with his biggest hand being one where he won over 3 million chips from Jeff Shulman. Kevin Schaffel kept his stack within a million of his beginning Day 8 amount from start to finish, but don’t let that fool anyone into thinking that he was just plain lucky to see the final table. In the WPT Legends tournament held from August 22 to the 26th at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles he came in second, coming so close to securing a major WPT title to his name.
Antoine Saout from France did manage to survive, going from his starting 11,135,000 chip count to finish Day 8 having 9,500,000 remaining in his final table stack. James Akenhead had a rough time of it, starting out with over 8.5 million and finishing with 6,800,000 on Day 8. Akenhead has played magnificently throughout this WSOP, so expect good things from him. Jeff Shulman muscled his way through with solid play, consistently working his way back up to doubling his Day 8 opening stack after falling to as low as 7.4 million.
Probably the most controversial player of the group is Jeff Shulman, who is COO and President of Card Player Magazine. It was found out that Shulman planned to throw the Main Event bracelet in the trash if he won the title in a form of protest against the WSOP. (He has not mentioned tossing the $8,546,435 for first place in the can behind the bracelet, so he may have plans on keeping the cash.) The confusion as to why he plays in WSOP events when he is opposed to the things that they do, is like a person who protests against cruelty to animals, but will bet on a dog fight to make a few extra dollars. How this affects the way people feel about the WSOP and the house that Barry Shulman built, (Barry founded Card Player Magazine), remains to be seen. A lot of eyes will be glued to the final table just to see what decision Jeff Shulman makes if he does win.
Play ended Day 8 with just a few minutes in level 33 with $30,000 ante and $120,000/$240,000 blinds. This is where the final table will continue play at. The next step up will be at level 34 with $40,000 ante and $150,000/$300,000 blinds.