May 29 2012, Rich Ryan

It’s finally here. After weeks and weeks of anticipation, the 2012 World Series of Poker is once again in full swing. For the 13th year in a row, the WSOP opened with the $500 Casino Employees Event, which attracted 732 runners, creating a prize pool of $329,400. On Monday, Chiab “Chip” Saechao emerged victorious, and became the first bracelet winner of 2012.

While Saechao was battling at the final table, all eyes were on the first open event of the 2012 WSOP; Event 2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em. Dozens of familiar faces were spread over three rooms in the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, but there was one player sitting in the Tan section of the Amazon Room who drew everybody’s attention.

1. Phil Ivey is back

One year ago, during the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship, Phil Ivey shocked the world. He announced through his Facebook account that he was going to boycott the 2011 WSOP, and that he had filed a lawsuit against Tiltware.

I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm.

I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.

The news was jaw dropping to say the least. One of the most popular players in the game (and arguably the best player in the game) wasn’t going to play in the biggest and most important tournament series in the world. Rumors swirled about where Ivey actually was during the summer. A few reliable individuals said that he was in Ireland at some point, attempting to single-handedly broker a deal between Tiltware and potential buyers. If this is true, his attempts were obviously unsuccessful – we’re still waiting for someone to purchase FTP’s assets and finally pay the players.

The WSOP moved on without Ivey, and it took a week or two, but we finally let go of the issue, until the Main Event arrived.

Ivey owns the Main Event. He’s finished 23rd or higher four times in the last decade, including a 10th-place finish in 2003 ($82,700), and a seventh-place in 2009 ($1,404,014). Assuming that Ivey has played the Main Event every year since turning 21 in 1997, his ROI is over 1200%. Despite these mind-blowing numbers however, Ivey did not enter the 2011 Main Event.

When the WSOP concluded, Ivey was still nowhere to be found, until the 2011 PokerStars.net APPT Macau rolled around in November. He entered quietly, and he busted quietly, but his return sparked an argument within the poker community – by playing this event, was Phil Ivey being true to his word?

APPT Macau was not a WSOP-sponsored event, but Ivey was still playing when “others cannot,” and some people took offense to this. It’s nearly impossible to blame him for both FTP and Groupe Bernard Tapie’s mistakes however. GBT had an opportunity to end this mess and resurrect FTP, but their plan was allegedly flawed, and the Department of Justice would not accept it. Ivey is one of the two or three most well-known Team FTP players however, so it’s easy to deflect blame to him rather than some suit we’ve never seen before.

Following APPT Macau, Ivey made appearances at the Aussie Millions, the L.A. Poker Classic, and the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final. It was clear that he would return to the WSOP in 2012, but for how many events? During the 25K Fantasy auction draft on Saturday, PokerNews’ Remko Rinkema asked Daniel Negreanu about Ivey, and how many events he’d be playing. Negreanu didn’t give a direct answer, but he did tell Rinkema that he and Ivey were willing to bet anyone that one of them would win a bracelet in 2012. He also said that they had already booked some big action.

Even still, when Ivey sat down in the Tan section of the Amazon Room yesterday for Event #2, I was more excited than I should’ve been. He’s back. The most feared poker player in the world is back. The eight-time bracelet winner (watch your heels, Phil Hellmuth) is back. The man who’s number three on the all-time money list is back.

Phil Ivey is back, and he returned to play a measly $1,500 no-limit hold’em tournament. That smells like a large schedule to me.

2. Auction Recap

The folks over at QuadJacks did a nice job covering Negreanu’s 25K Fantasy auction on Saturday. Some of the participants did a nice job as well, while others made a few costly mistakes. For starters, both Team Sorel Mizzi and Team Robert Mizrachi still have money to spend. Mizzi and Mizrachi saved $7 and $9 respectively, and unfortunately the money doesn’t carry over to next year. Instead of drafting Alex Kuzmin, who went for an ungodly $23, Mizzi could’ve possibly picked up George Lind III who went for $30. And, instead of spending $7 on Mike Matusow, Mizrachi could’ve spent some of his savings and snagged Michael Binger who only went for $10.

Both Team Brian Hastings and Team Daniel Negreanu had the right strategy going into the action – spend most of your money on two great players, and fill out the rest of your team with cheaper players with a lot of upside. Unfortunately, both Negreanu and Hastings filled their teams with too many players who can only play hold’em at an elite level, limiting the amount of volume they can put in. Also, Alexander Kostritsyn just had a child, so he may miss the WSOP in its entirety. At a glance, my favorite teams are Team Jason Mercier and Team Eugene Katchalov. They’re both filled with guys who can play every game, including hidden gems like Chris Genius28 Lee ($1), John D’Agostino ($5), and Abe Mosseri ($3). I’d be willing to take 4:1 that one of those two teams ends up winning to the top prize of over $100,000

3. Casey Jarzabek vs. John Kim

On Monday, during the first few levels of Event #2, John Kim caused a stir when he tweeted the following about Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek:

I contacted Jarzabek, and he informed me that Kim’s reporting of the “QQ<AA” hand was incorrect.

“The board was K88xx, and the king saved me from going broke,” he told me. “I also don’t take backing or sell pieces on TwoPlusTwo. The aces to queens hand wasn’t my actual bust out hand, but I considered it my bust out because it was for most of my chips. I guess it was misleading, but it wasn’t my intention. I essentially busted when I lost 1,500 to 1,200 chips with the nut flush draw.”

He later made light of the situation, tweeting this:

Jarzabek has only posted on TwoPlusTwo six times, and his last activity came on Nov. 18, 2011. So, unless he posts under another alias, he doesn’t have any shares listed in the marketplace.

There was an issue with Owais Ahmed in April when he allegedly lied about a hand from the World Poker Tour Hollywood Poker Open Main Event. Ahmed said that he busted with aces against king-queen, while another poster said it was against a set of deuces. Ahmed refutes this claim. This situation is different, because Ahmed is reporting his bust out hand directly to players who have invested in him, whereas Jarzabek simply tweeted the results. Had Jarzabeck had his own thread in TwoPlusTwo and (allegedly) misreported his hand, then that’s a bigger issue.

The Kim vs. Jarzabek drama will never be solved – it’s a simple case of he said, she said – and unfortunately for Jarzabek (if he’s telling the truth) he won’t shake this for a few weeks, because everybody knows that the poker community loves a good witch hunt.

4. Brutal commentating?

During the $100,000 World Poker Tour World Championship final table, commentators Tony Dunst, Dan O’Brien, and Olivier Busquet were brutally honest – as they always are. They were unafraid to pick apart the players at the table, including the eventual winner Tom Marchese, and some players took offense to this.

The best players in the world don’t always take the standard line – if they did, then they wouldn’t be special – but is it OK to chastise them when they stray from norm? Well, there’s a fine line between mixing it up and making mistakes. Any player can go back and say that they were trying to be creative by taking an unorthodox line, when really they were just spewing.

However, you have to give credit where credit is due. Dunst, O’Brien, and Busquet were especially crushing Juanda, but all he does is win. Since 2004, Juanda has had five, million-dollar years, including 2008 where he won over $2.4 million. He may not always do what’s “standard,” but his results speak for themselves. And isn’t that what’s great about poker? Obviously there are situations where math-based thinking trumps “feel” entirely, but there are also times where creativity and heart can separate great players from good ones.

Commentators should be critical, and they should speak openly about how they feel and what they would do if they were at the table, but there are times when you have to give the players the benefit of the doubt. This is true especially for a player like Juanda, who has over $12 million in career tournament earnings.

5. Hellmuth loses a crown

Kristy Arnett caught up with Phil Hellmuth during Event 2 on Monday, and apparently the Poker Brat needs to head to the dentist.

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May 29 2012, Shari Geller

Day 2 of the 2012 World Series of Poker boasted two firsts – the first bracelet awarded and the first large field, open event at the Rio this summer. Chiab “Chip” Saechao won Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em, and took home $70,859 and a shiny new gold bracelet. Event #2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, got under way at 1200 PDT (2000 BST) with 2,101 players competing for their share of a $2,836,350 prize pool. This event heralded the return of Phil Ivey to the Rio, after having sat out last year’s WSOP. But Ivey was far from the only familiar face at the tables. A veritable “Who’s Who” of the poker world turned out on Memorial Day to take their first shot at a bracelet. After 11 levels, the field had dwindled to 240, still 24 shy of the money.

Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em

The final day of this two-day event began with 46 players. The chip leader was the appropriately nicknamed Chiab “Chip” Saechao, followed closely by James Routos and Matthew Wilmot. All eyes were on WSOP executive director Ty Stewart, the most famous name left in the field. Three hours later, the field was reduced to the final two tables, but sans Stewart. Donald Michael had propelled to the lead, with roughly 17 percent of the chips in play, in part due to his knockout hand against Stewart to reach the top 18.

The two went heads-up to a flop of and Stewart led out with a bet of 25,000, about half his stack. Michael came over the top to put Stewart all-in. Stewart was in trouble with for middle pair against Michael’s for top pair. The board ran out and Stewart was out in 19th place ($2,223).

Amy Brady had been the chip leader earlier in the day after busting Joshua Murray and taking down the biggest pot of the day in a blind versus blind contest. They limped to see a flop of and, not surprisingly, the raggedy board was just what the blinds needed. Brady bet, Murray raised, Brady reraised and the pot was already up to over 100,000. After the fell on the turn, Brady shoved and Murry made the call. He had flopped bottom two with and Brady had top pair with . But a on the river gave Brady the pot and Murray was out in 25th place ($2,223).

Brady ended her day in 14th place after a failed semi-bluff. With the board reading , Patricia Baker led out from the big blind for 35,000. Brady tanked then moved all-in for 117,000 more. Baker, who barely had Brady covered, made the call. Brady showed for an open-ended straight draw and Baker had top pair with . Brady missed all her outs on the turn and river and she took home the consolation prize of $3,379.

Saechao and Routos, two of the three chip leaders going into Day 2, joined Baker as the last three standing. When the dust settled, Saechao was crowned the winner, with Baker the runner up. Saechao had crippled Baker earlier when he won his second of two late-in-the-day coin flips, this one in sick fashion. His pocket tens were behind Baker’s on the flop, but the turn was the and, as if to rub it in even further, a on the river gave Baker trips to Saechao’s boat. Their final hand had Baker coolered as her straight fell to Saechao’s flush.

To read all the exciting action, check out our live reporting blog.

Event #2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

Some of the biggest names in the poker world turned out for the first open event of the 2012 WSOP, plopping down a mere $1,500 to take part in one of the weekly low buy-in events. Phil Ivey, absent from last year’s event, was in attendance along with Daniel Negreanu, Kathy Liebert, Allen Cunningham, Jennifer Harmon, Gavin Smith, and dozens of well-known pros. Main Event winners like Jonathan Duhamel and Phil Hellmuth, November Niners including Chino Rheem and Ylon Schwartz, and TV regulars Jean-Robert Bellande and Maria Ho represented a wide-range of the poker world. Out of this group, only Hellmuth survived to Day 2.

Ho may not have made it to the end of the day, but she had the knockout heard round the Rio when she ended Ivey’s day during Level 5. With blinds at 100/200, Ho raised to 450 from the hijack seat, Ivey repopped for his last 1,600 out of the small blind and Ho called. Ivey was ahead to Ho’s . The flop seemed safe, coming {2hs}, the on the turn added four more outs and one of those, the , sent Ivey out the door.

The other Phil, Hellmuth, had a better day. During Level 8 he tweeted that he had hit quad aces, which was overkill considering he had pocket aces against his opponents pocket queens. But in Level 9, he took pocket tens against his opponent’s pocket sevens only to see the board cruelly run out . Hellmuth built back up and will go into Day 2 with an above-average chip stack of 44,600.

After 10 levels of play, Sadan Turker is the chip leader with 158,100. Close on his heels are poker pros Eli Elezra, second in chips with 155,900; and Brandon Cantu, fourth with 130,100. Included among those still in the hunt for the first open bracelet of the year are such notables as Layne Flack, Noah Schwartz, John Juanda, Vanessa Selbst, Jason Mercier and Carter Gill.

The top 216 finishers will cash, with payouts ranging from a minimum of $2,893 to the top prize of $517,725.

Be sure to follow all the coverage of Event #2 when it restarts on Tuesday at 1300 PDT (2100 BST).

On Tap

Tomorrow, in Event #2, the first order of business will be getting into the money. The remaining 240 players will return to play down first to the top 216 and then to the final table as we move closer to knowing if the first open bracelet will be taken down by a known pro or an unknown amateur. Two more open events will kick off. First, is Event #3: $3,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha. The first match will start at 1200 PDT (2000 BST). Entrants will be capped at 512, so register early if you’re interested in playing. Later in the day, at 1700 PDT (0100 BST), Event #4: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better, will get under way.

To make sure you don’t miss any of the action, follow our live tournament reporting.

Video of the Day

Kristy Arnett caught up with a scruffy Phil Hellmuth during a break in Event #2. The two discussed dental emergencies, second-place finishes, and no-limit hold’em records.

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