WSOP

Lesser Known Players in WSOP

Las Vegas is the place to be if you want to hit it big in the world of Poker. Every year this is where players from all places come to make a name for themselves and to compete for the World Series of Poker bracelets. Along with the growing popularity of the game, poker’s best players have also come to take on center stage. Guys like Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Scott Nguyen are among those you can expect to see every year in Vegas and on World Series of Poker programming. Good at what they do, these players definitely deserve the wide recognition they’re getting. But there are some who have not taken on the spotlight but have multiple bracelets to their names.

Billy Baxter. Baxter has a total of seven WSOP bracelets. Yet a lot of people do not even know him. Baxter is a true poker legend. He won his first WSOP bracelet in a 1975 deuce to seven event and since then has gone on to cash 28 times so far. In the 80s he won five of his seven titles and won one in the 90s. In 2002, he captured his latest bracelet and soon after made seven cashes. So with all the credentials to back up a superstar personality, why is Baxter not so known in the poker world? The possible reason is that he plays in less popular games like deuce to seven lowball, Razz, and Ace to Five draw. Just recently, he made the final table in event 40, proving that he is still a great player. Seven bracelets and more than one million dollars in WSOP earnings – Baxter is truly deserving of a spot among the greatest poker players of all time.

Layne Flack. Sure, you might have heard the name and know the face. But do you know that he has six WSOP bracelets? Flack has been on television quite a few times, although he isn’t a regular on popular programming. With 19 cashes so far, he has more than $2.2 million in WSOP earnings. His first title came in 1999 when he won a Pot Limit holdem event for more than $220,000. His career took off from there and since then he has won bracelets in No Limit Holdem, Omaha Hi/Lo, and Pot Limit Omaha rebuy. This year, he won his first bracelet in five years, taking home more than a half million dollars. Flack has a current title count of six and has finished in the top five five times.

Berry Johnston. Although a lot of people do not know who he is, Johnston is a main event winner. In 1986, he won the main event and took home the bracelet along with $570,000 in loot. Overall, Johnston has a total of five bracelets and has cashed 56 times in his career. He has won titles in limit and no Limit Holdem, Omaha, Razz, and in Heads Up. This year he cashed in three times. His best finish in 2008 was being 10th in the World Championship of Omaha. He has a total of over $2 million in earnings and is known for being one of the tightest and most solid players in the history of Texas Holdem poker. His playing style has definitely helped him get a lot more cashes in his career and compete for bracelets.

Tom McEvoy. He first took the title in 1983 and has so far won four bracelets and has made 36 career WSO cashes. The highlight of his career was the year 1983 when he won two events which included besting Doyle Brunson himself at the final table of the Main Event. His bracelets were won in four different games: Limit Holdem, No Limit Holdem, Razz, and Omaha. His career earnings has reached more than $1.2 million, which will surely increase as he continues to play in the series every year. Although he has failed to win another bracelet since 1992, he has had seven cashes in the last three years. This year he finished in the top 30 twice and made more than $12, 000.

Chau Giang. Giang has had 46 career cashes and has three bracelets to his name. This year has been amazing for him as he cashed in eight times and finished in the top 15 three times. His first bracelet was won in 1993 and the latest was in 2004 for winning the Pot Limit Omaha event. His total career earnings reach close to $1.5 million, becoming one of the most consistent and best players in the world.

Tags:
Limit Holdem, No Limit Holdem, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, Poker, Pot Limit holdem, Pot Limit Omaha, Razz, Texas Holdem, World Series of Poker, WSOP

The World Series of Poker Don’ts

Do not get in fiery arguments with any of the staff. Mistakes will occur at the Poker table. Dealers will do thing either they should not or floor employees will make calls that they should not. Keep your anger in check first. Let it go until later and discuss it calmly with them if the matter is of moderately small result that has little or no overall bearing on a hand or the tournament. You may ask for to even see the rules. If you do not like the result you may even appeal to speak with the Tournament Director. You need to take care of the matter at the table right then the matter is something of serious consequence. Request if the Tournament Director needs to be involved. On the other hand, once a final decision has been made, continue with play. Even the policy affirm that the “floor decisions are final.”

Do not put Poker chips in your pocket. This may sounds silly, but people forget about this every year and end up in problem. The chips automatically become dead if you put chips into your pocket. If you are moving to another table, it does not matter. There have been period where players have put all of their chips in their pockets, and as an outcome they were ineligible.

Do not try and make out a way to cheat at the World Series of Poker. Initially, there are cameras everywhere. After that, the floor staff is especially trained to look for cheating. Do not forget that your opponents will be a little smarter than your home game buddies so they will also be able to spot any conspicuous irregularities. Steps are also at all times taken to make sure that Poker cheating does not occur. Two years ago a situation happened where someone had a drink napkin on the table for a long time for example. Usually this is above suspicion enough, but the player had in fact been hiding cards under the napkin. Napkins are no longer allowed on the table afterwards. If you ever see a dealer count down the number of cards in a deck a couple of times an hour, which came as a through outcome of the above scenario.

Do not bother the professionals while they are playing. There are many that would rather you let them work while they are in a tournament while some professionals are very open to their fans. Every now and then people like to approach pros while they are on break from a tournament. It would really be most excellent if you leave the professionals unaccompanied while they are on break in a tournament. Pros have need of a break just like other Poker players.

Carry on a number of of the above tips in mind when you are present at the World Series of Poker. It will help all and sundry have a great time and keep conflict down to a minimum.

Tags:
Poker, Poker Table Manners, World Series of Poker

Barbara Enright: Profile of the World’s Greatest Female Poker Player

Barbara Enright is the face of female poker players all over the world, being the first to ever make the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event. Born in Los Angeles, California, she has been playing the game since the tender age of four, playing five card draw against her older brother. She started playing in card rooms in 1976 while juggling several jobs to support herself and her family. She worked as a hairstylist, bartender and cocktail waitress, often holding down three jobs at once. She had never actually considered taking her game further and breaking into the professional world of Poker. However, she was diagnosed with a chronic illness that prevented her from pursuing her chosen career as a hairdresser. And with her skills, she soon started making more money playing poker part time than working all of her jobs combined. So she quit working and started a full time career as a poker player. And her hard work eventually paid off big time.

In 1995, Enright headlined a final table that featured Chuck Thompson, Captain Tom Franklin, and Dan Harrington. Harrington ended up with the title while Enright was eliminated due to an unlucky outdraw by Brent Carter. But even so, she is still widely regarded as a true Poker legend.

In 1995, Enright followed up her performance by becoming the first woman to ever win an open event at the World Series of Poker. It was the 1996 Pot Limit holdem event and she finished first to win $180,000 and the coveted gold bracelet – her third overall bracelet. She has won bracelets in the Women’s 7 card stud event in both 1986 and 1994.

Enright is best known around the poker world for her dexterity as a stud player, which was how she won many of her earlier tournament wins and cashes. She is a competent No Limit Holdem player as well with numerous cashes and 4 titles to boot. In 2007, Enright was inducted into the Professional Poker Hall of Fame – the first woman to have achieved the feat and be awarded the honor.

2008 has so far gone great for Enright. She has had 10 cashes so far in tournaments with 6 final tables and 3 wins. Earlier this year, she was inducted into the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame and tournament was held as part of the festivities. She proved herself once more as to why she was worthy of the induction by winning the event. She has been quoted for saying that most women play the game too soft. When a woman goes into a tournament and plays aggressive like a man, she can do very well.

Aside from being a pro in the poker world, Barbara Enright is also a motivational speaker and is the Editor-in-Chief of Women Poker Player magazine. But poker seems to be at the core of her life. She is even married to a fellow poker player and author, Max Shapiro. They have 11 children together.

As of recent, her total earnings from poker amount to more than $1,275,000. These days Barbara Enright is said to enjoy playing poker online as a form of relaxation. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:
7 card stud, No Limit Holdem, Poker, Pot Limit holdem, World Series of Poker

Player Profile: Johnny Chan

With a total of 10 World Series of Poker bracelets under his name, Johnny Chan is undoubtedly one of the best players in WSOP history. He is just behind Phil Hellmuth by one in the total number of bracelets. Born in China, he came to the United States in 1968. Chan’s first WSOP cash was in 1983. He won his first bracelet in 1985 while his tenth was won in 2005. He still plays a full schedule with three cashes in 2008. He is popular on poker television and is considered to be one of the top 5 players in the entire World Series of Poker history.

The Main Event of the 1987 World Series of Poker Main was where Chan’s career truly started, although he already had one bracelet at that time. The final table in 1987 was full of poker’s great players such as Howard Lederer, Dan Harrington, and Mickey Appleman. But Chan proved that he was a poker player to reckon with. He beat all the top pros at the table that day and took home the title. He was up against Frank Henderson and beat him heads up to win $650 000.

In 1988, Chan again made the final table of the Main Event this time with guys like Erik Seidel, TJ Cloutier and Humberto Brenes. He again showed that he was one of the top pros in the world, besting Seidel heads up. He took home the bracelet and $700 000. In the 1989 Main Event, Chan was already the man to watch, already with back-to-back wins and three bracelets. He battled his way to be in contention for the title, and what happened was a battle that made poker history. It was Phil Hellmuth against Johnny Chan. Hellmuth took home the title, but Chan still brought home more than $300 000. After that, Chan won more bracelets and made another final table appearance in 1992.

His fourth bracelet wouldn’t be until 1994 when he won a 7 card stud tournament. His fifth was in 1997. That year, he outlasted Barry Greenstein, Steve Zolotow and Lyle Berman, winning the deuce to seven lowball bracelet. His sixth bracelet was in 2000. And in 2002, he found himself up against once more with Hellmuth in the no limit holdem heads up tournament. But this time Johnny took home the title and his seventh bracelet. His eighth and ninth bracelet were both won in 2003 in event 15 and event 24. In 2005 Chan made record with his 10th bracelet in a Pot Limit holdem tournament where he had to beat Phil Laak heads up. He had a total win of $300 000. Since then Johnny has cashed eight times. Most recently in 2008, he finished 4th in an Omaha event.

Overall Chan has 10 bracelets and cashed 41 times under his name with 27 final tables made in his 25-year career. At the World Series of Poker alone, he has already made more than $4 million. Chan is considered to be one of the most consistent poker players in poker history, having significant success playing Holdem of all limits and styles, Omaha and seven card games.

Johnny Chan is happily married and has six children. He has written two books, Play Poker like Johnny Chan and Million Dollar Holdem. He is a frequent figure on the NBC show Poker After Dark. He owns fast food franchises. He runs his own online poker site and even has plans of opening up his own casino. A business man and a legend in poker, Chan is one guy who strives for and most certainly already has success in the endeavors he has made in life.

Tags:
7 card stud, Erik Seidel, Frank Henderson, Holdem, Humberto Brenes, Johnny Chan, Omaha, Phil Hellmuth, Poker, Pot Limit holdem, TJ Cloutier, World Series of Poker, WSOP

Record Low Crowd in WSOP Circuit Main Event

Just recently, the World Series of Poker completed a stop at the Horseshoe Southern Indiana. Compared to many other circuit events over the years, this one in particular registered a sharp decrease in the number of overall participants. Prior to this, the record for lowest turn up for the Main Event of a WSOP circuit event was 99. This event had a mere 84 players. But even more striking was that the big name stars of the Poker world were no-shows. The only famous name in the field was Bernard Lee but he was eliminated before Day 1 of the event.

Maybe we could give you more information as to how small this field actually was. A play that was scheduled to last until 3 AM on Day 1 was done at about 10 PM. Day 2 only lasted a little less than five hours. Because of the small field size, there were only nine Poker players who finished in the money. At seat 9 was Len Ashby with 177,000. At seat 8 was Ray Lynn, who had 17,500. Beside him at seat 7, Derek Whelan was with 117,500. At seat 6, Joey Couden had 128,000. Next to him was Dean Schultz, who had a total of 114,000. Jamin Stokes was at seat 4 with 189,500. At seat 3, Samuel Oberlin had a total of 229,500. David Kopacz had 151,000 and was at seat 2. Finally at seat 1, Jerry Martin had a total of 139,500.

The play ended up three handed between David Kopacz, Samuel Oberlin, and Jerry Martin. Martin had was in the Poker lead with a huge gain in chips and took a dominating lead when he eliminated David Kopacz after flopping a set with pocket queens.

Martin entered with almost a 5 to 1 chip lead over Oberlin in a heads up play and he had over 1 Million in chips while Oberlin was just over 200,000. Oberlin was back in contention after one hand. He moved in with pocket queens and was called by the K-J of Martin. But queens held and Oberlin ended up with over half a million in chips.

He afterwards took the lead with some strong betting a few hands and then another huge confrontation occurred between him and Martin. The flop was showing Jc-4c-5h and Martin moved all-in against Oberlin. Oberlin called. He was again holding pocket queens. Martin was holding J-7. Samuel Oberlin overcame a massive chip deficit to win the first WSOP Circuit Title of the season. He took home $143,064 and the gold circuit championship ring, proving that when you reach heads up play, many times the player that catches the cards winds up the winner.

Next up, the WSOP Circuit will be heading to Hammond, IN. Starting the 24th of October, the first circuit event in the Chicago, IL area is going to take place. If you want details about the event, you can go check out the website at www.worldseriesofpoker.com. It will be interesting to see whether the next events will reign in more participants. We are all in hopes that it will as the future of poker starts to feel a bit bleak. Let us just hope that regardless of the current economic crisis, the love for poker will still win the players over.

Tags:
David Kopacz, Jerry Martin, Poker, Samuel Oberlin, World Series of Poker, WSOP, www.worldseriesofpoker.com