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All things must come to an end, and for Johan Juanda there was a gruelling 22 hours final table marathon before he finally took down the WSOPE Main Event gold bracelet. But there’s been nothing gruelling about the Team PokerRoom.com WSOPE 2008 experience - rather a fabulous long run of fun, thrill and excitement. The best poker experience possible, awesome food at fancy restaurants, parties at extravagant clubs, good shows, great hospitality, interesting tours around London, and foremost, remarkable people and new friends.
The Empire Casino in London was a splendid venue for the tournament, and it offered great opportunities for the team members and their friends and family to rail the poker action. The nearby bar also added a dimension, making all of tournament days a true poker feast. It was with great excitement we all followed demach AA to his £25k cash and well deserved 32nd place. We’ll neither forget Speedzebres heroic effort, as he almost made it all the way but fell short on the bubble, so close, so close.
Billybillard from Canada decided to extend his first ever visit in Europe by stopping by Team veteran Wieringen in Germany, whom he befriended during previous Team events.
You can find more behind the scenes photos in WSOPE flickr-stream by clicking here. See you at the events to come!
Even if the WSOPE is at an end for our fabulous team this time, the excitement and adventures haven't quite ended yet.
First off, the Final Table is set and the action is about to commence at any moment now. We’ve seen John Juanda playing first class poker through out the tournament, seated next to our Team member dematch AA on day 2 and rubbing shoulders with Speedzebre during day 3. Second in chips is Stanislav Alekhin from Russia, who seems to be a the position to really jolt the table. Negreanu was chip leader early on and slipped back quite a bit during day 2, but has now worked himself back up to equal stacks with Ivan Demidov, both of whom will have a good shot at the money. Ivad Demidov, for those who think the name rings a bell, is currently most known for being part of the "November Nine", ie a finalist for the WSOP 2008.
Seat 1: Robin Keston 849,000
Seat 2: Daniel Negreanu 1,002,000
Seat 3: Chris Elliott 281,000
Seat 4: Bengt Sonnert 385,000
Seat 5: John Juanda 1,349,000
Seat 6: Ivan Demidov 1,006,000
Seat 7: Toni Hiltunen 386,000
Seat 8: Scott Fischman 732,000
Seat 9: Stanislav Alekhin 1,278,000
Secondly, the awesome Team spirit doesn’t just go away because dematch AA cashed in his grand pay cheque. There have been two days of celebrations for our French hero, including a selection of what London has to offer such as dinners, drinks, a musical, late night poker and even a bit of football. The Team is taking a day of rest today, eager to catch the Final Table action, before we set off on a day of surprise activities planned for tomorrow.
What's a visit to England without some proper football? The Team got to see Arsenal defeating Porto 4-0 in the Champions League. An amazing atmosphere at the Stadium! Photo: Marc Aspland/The Times
Team PokerRoom's WSOPE has come to a close, and this time it's a happy ending. dematch AA, still short stacked, went all-in with QJ and was insta-called by Daniel Negreanu with AJ. The flop, turn and river were of no help and our Frenchman made his way to the rail, still grinning madly, finishing in 32nd place and £25,340 (around $45,000) richer. It was an incredible feat by our man, who had lost 70% of his stack right before the bubble on a coin flip. We feared the worst but he hung on and hung on. Following that beat, play suddenly stopped and all attention was drawn to the feature tv table. It seems that there were 3 players all-in... the hand played out and sent 2 players to rail, ensuring everyone else a money finish. Cue huge cheering from the rest of Team PokerRoom, watching from the rail. dematch AA could hardly believe it and punched the air with his fist. There was still time for him to be moved to the feature table, sitting between Daniel Negreanu and Mike Matusow. He clung on for a few more hands, despite holding just 15,000 chips. He even doubled up after hitting a 3 outer, much to Negreanu's amusement. It was a short reprieve though, and our hero bowed out in the next hand to Negreanu himself.
Wow. I'm still shaking from all the excitement. It's time for the Team to hit London Town to celebrate now, but I'll be back later with a photo recap of the day. Over and out!
Fantastic news folks, dematch AA has held on and held on and has just made the money! A truly magnificent performance from the Frenchman who is absolutely ecstatic. I've got to run back to the floor now to keep up to date with what's happening. Back soon! Oh, and he's just been moved to the seat between Negreanu and Matusow. Yeah.
Horrible horrible horrible. A heartbreaking end to the tournament for Speedzebre, who's been sent to the rail just 3 places short of the money. Reminiscent of nammer4life's exit in last year's bubble, the Frenchman lost out in the most agonising way possible. With one limper and positioned on the small blind, Speedzebre elected to call the extra 1200, holding Qd8d. The big blind checked and the flop came Ad5d9d. The limper bet out 4,000 and our man immediately moved all in. There was then some controversy when the limper called the all-in before the big blind had acted. The tournament director was called over to sort things out. Big blind said he was about to call anyway, and play was allowed to continue. The turn brought an Ad and a shove from Mr Big Blind. Limper folds and then the moment of agony. Speedzebre flipped over his Qd8d thinking he was surely in front. Cruelly though, his opponent turned over Kd3d. Our French hero slumped back into his seat, head in hands and unable to believe was what was happening. It was a horrible end to what has been a superb tournament for Speedzebre. He's pitted his wits against some of the biggest names in the game and come out on top. He sent Scotty Nyguen to the rail. We all truly believed he'd done enough to make the money, but it wasn't to be. As he said himself a moment ago, poker is a cruel, cruel game sometimes.
The drama continues to unfold at the Empire, with both Team members still well and truly in the mix. The wireless network went down at the casino for 2 hours just now, which was the reason for the lack of updates. It certainly wasn't due to a lack of action! dematch AA just doubled up right before the break, when he called an all-in on a flop of J75 holding QJ. His opponent flipped over 74 to leave our man well in front. The blanks on the turn and river were met with a huge sigh of relief by the Frenchman and he's now up to 150,000! Meanwhile Speedzebre continues to hang in there on 50,000. He's just been moved to dematch AA's table which makes it easier for me to keep an eye on them at least! Both are in with a fantastic shout of cashing here, as we near the bubble. There are just 43 players left with the top 36 being played. As you can imagine, the tension is rising....
We're in for a soft start of Day 3, as the game has tightened up all around as we're closing in on the bubble. But someone who didn't start off on the slow side was dematch AA, very keen on bringing his stack up to par. Playing almost any cards he could, he finally got lucky and moved his stack up to around a hundred. But he didn't drop the pace there, and his opponents soon started to take advantage of his loose image. After playing virtually every hand, he finally dropped the pace, halfway into the first level, and has now established a tight image. Unfortunately he's down to around his start stack of the day.
dematch AA hails from Paris, France, and works as a management and IT consultant. Apart from poker, he enjoys sports like running, tennis and squash, and loves to take off on water ski or kite surfing vacations. He's pretty new to live poker, and only placed well in a few casino tournaments. He used to be an avid online tournament player, but have recently moved over to explore the cash game tables. He won his seat to the WSOPE by qualifying through the $10 satelites and won his final ticket on his 10th satelite, but one of the very first $500+40 finals he had played.
And we're back for Day 3! First up, here are how things stand at the start of play:
Andy Bloch 321600
Brian 'sbrugby' Townsend 290100
Erik Seidel 282300
John Juanda 252500
Philippe Rouas 233300
Chris Elliott 231900
Chris 'Moorman1' Moorman 219500
Justin 'BoostedJ' Smith 217700
Daniel Negreanu 203700
Brandon Adams 190000
Jani Sointula 184800
Bengt Sonnert 184600
Mike Matusow 180300
Ivan Demidov 176200
Tome Moreira 165800
Stanislav Alekhin 164000
Christofer Williamsson 163500
Scott Fischman 152800
Rajinder Shina 152500
Jarred Solomon 142400
Jan Schwarz 133800
Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott 133000
Peter Turmezey 132500
Peter Neff 130400
Perttu Bergius 119800
Talal Shakerchi 119800
Max Steinberg 114700
Robin Keston 13800
Speedzebre 111300
Kim-Andre Torsvik 109200
Ross Boatman 103100
Frazer Bellamy 98200
Brian Johnson 95900
Martin Fournier-Giguere 94100
Mel Judah 93700
Erik Sagstrom 93100
Phil Laak 92900
Josh Arieh 89000
Roberto Machado 85000
Harri Pehkonen 82200
Alexander Kostritsyn 80100
Toni Hiltunen 78600
James Keys 76400
Stephen Ladowsky 69900
Jean Thorel 66700
Ted Lawson 65100
Tim West 58600
Johnny Lodden 57200
dematch AA 56000
Jani Vilmunen 52200
Thomas Bentham 50700
Panicos Panaxi 45600
Jeff Garza 43200
Soren Kongsgaard 41400
Karl Mahrenholz 34800
Florian Langmann 32700
Steve van Zadelhoff 32200
Vicky Coren 29800
Jason Gray 23600
Isaac Haxton 22500
Andy Black 21600
William Haughey 17600
There are now 64 players remaining and today we'll play down to 27. The top 36 are paid.
We've just heard who our Team will be up against today. Despite having an above average stack, Speedzebre finds himself the shortest on his table ,which includes 5 of the top 20, one of which is a certain Mike Matusow. He'll also be up against John Juanda and Christopher Moorman in what is a very, very tough looking table. dematch AA, whilst much shorter stacked than his compatriot, finds what is on paper at least an easier table, with just 1 of the top 20 stacks. Notable names at his table include Eric Sagstrom and Alexandre Kostrisyn.
I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing the guys the best of luck. You can do it!
Day 2 has just finished, and it finished on a high for Team PokerRoom, with both of our players safely through to Day 3 after long battles at the tables. dematch AA is sitting on 56000 whilst an incredible effort from Speedzebre has propelled him up from 40,000 earlier in the day to a closing stack of 111,000 which is just above average. Great work guys!
There were plenty of highs and lows from today's play. gbpoker was gutted to lose out in a big tourney on a coin flip AGAIN... keep it up though fella, you made the right call and eventually your luck is bound to change. My personal highlight of the day has to be Speedzebre dumping Scotty Nyguen out of the WSOPE. That's what you get for messing with Team PokerRoom, baby! We also saw dematch AA effectively knocking out Doyle Brunson as well, so it really has been a day to remember for our French pair. They'll be back tomorrow, and so will we!
The final session of Day 2 is now underway, with blinds at 600/1200 and 200 ante. Our two Team members had frustrating sessions but live to fight another day, Speedzebre on 49,000 and dematch AA holding around 40,000. Both will be looking to double up during this final session to bring themselves up to around average. It's also gone midnight now and tiredness is setting in. Keep going chaps!
