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Well, it looks as though I might have overshot the 2010 Mastodon Weekend by about, oh, 675 miles or something. While others degen it up in G-ville, I am spending the weekend in West Palm Beach with Vera Valmore, attending with her a dressage competition. Will be, I imagine, a marginally less intense time these next couple of days here in southern Florida, although I have to say I’m very glad to be able to get away with Vera like this.

So far Florida is not the sunny, pleasant place we were hoping to find, but rather chilly and uncomfortably windy. Vera is getting to see some excellent rides, though, including some by Olympians and other top competitors in the sport.

Meanwhile, since I have found myself in a state that actually has live poker, I have already taken the opportunity to play a bit.

Gonna save the live poker report until Monday. I have made one quick (and happily profitable) trip to the Palm Beach Kennel Club thus far. May or may not get to play again — we’ll see. Was an interesting session, though, that included a couple of semi-interesting and/or memorable hands. So, like I say, I will share a bit about it early next week.

Setting that aside, though, since poker-wise we’re all mostly preoccupied with that NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship that kicks off this afternoon. Last night a draw was held to determine the brackets. Funny to read all of the tweets from all of the players, each of whom seems to have responded to his or her draw the same way: “Tough match!”

Here is how that draw wound up:

Clicking the image gets you to a better look. Or just go over to the NBC site and download it yrself.

Even with all of the special invites and other funny business surrounding the selection of folks to play, all four brackets look pretty tough. Once again, anyone who manages to win six matches — even with the relatively fast structures — will have accomplished something noteworthy, I think.

I wrote a preview of the event appearing over on Betfair today. I believe F-Train and the PokerNews folks will be providing coverage, so check that out if you’re interested (here is their live reporting page). Episodes will start airing later next month on NBC, continuing for six straight Sundays until the end of May.

Sheesh. That’ll be just in time for the start of this year’s WSOP. Already?

Enjoy the weekend, all.

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Spent most of yesterday running around seeing family and doing some last minute shopping. I did, however, try to monitor from time to time what folks were saying about the PokerNews interview with the still-unidentified Isildur1 that appeared yesterday. You know that name “Isildur” is a Lord of the Rings thing, right? This sucker is turning into a regular triple-feature.

I saw threads continuing to lengthen on the forums as the debate persists regarding what indeed might have happened prior to Brian Hastings’ huge $4.2 million winning session versus Isildur1 on 12/8/09. Still a lot of energy among the posters going back and forth with arguments over whether or not Hastings unduly benefited from information about Isildur1’s play prior to the session.

For most, the issue concerns Full Tilt Poker’s admonition, listed in its “Site Terms,” against players gaining “an unfair advantage” by “accessing or compiling information on other players beyond that which the user has personally observed through his or her own game play.” Statements by Hastings following the session alluded to his having seen reports on Isildur1’s play that had been compiled by his friend and fellow CardRunners pro Brian Townsend. (See yesterday’s post for more specifics.)

Adding to the intrigue, Full Tilt Poker’s Fraud and Security Team conducted an investigation of the matter, including interviewing Hastings, Townsend, and Cole South, and determined that neither Hastings nor South were guilty of any violations of FTP’s terms. Townsend, however, was found to be guilty of “datamining,” and has thus been stripped of his Red Pro status on Full Tilt Poker for one month.

Not the first time Townsend has violated FTP’s rules, incidentally. You might recall how late last summer (2008) Townsend admitted to having created and played under multiple accounts (though not simultaneously) on both Full Tilt Poker and on PokerStars. For that transgression, Full Tilt revoked Townsend’s Red Pro status for six months.

Interestingly, Townsend’s explanation at the time concerned the fact that he had been experiencing a downswing and was thus forced to play lower stakes games than he normally did. “The reason why I created these accounts,” wrote Townsend on his blog, “was because I enjoy anonymity when playing smaller and am very prideful in what I do.” (Townsend also spoke with PokerNews’ Gloria Balding at the time regarding the issue.) In other words, it was a desire to remain anonymous and not have players whom he faced know that he was Brian Townsend — a.k.a., the former phenom “sbrugby” who a year or so before had suddenly turned up at the high-stakes games to take on the big boys (much like Isildur1) — that motivated him to create and use the additional accounts.

If you’ve read the interview with Isildur1 from yesterday on PokerNews, you saw that the unknown Swede is considering filing a “formal complaint” with Full Tilt Poker regarding the session with Hastings. It almost sounds as though he hadn’t contemplated doing so until after having been told of Full Tilt Poker’s policies and their potential application to his session with Hastings. He also notes in the interview that he does not plan to play on Full Tilt Poker until he hears back regarding his complaint.

Not sure how far Isildur1 will get with his query, but I’m most certainly intrigued to watch what happens next. As I noted yesterday, the “Site Terms” at Full Tilt Poker as well as similar terms that exist at other online poker sites certainly include a number of essentially ungovernable prohibitions, thus creating a lot of ambiguity among many regarding their efficacy. It is interesting to think how a person’s voluntary publicizing of information regarding his play (e.g., Hastings’ post-session interviews) can invite such scrutiny — not to mention the potential for punishment.

In other words, as many poker players already know full well, it usually pays to keep quiet.

Such was Isildur1’s strategy until yesterday. Like most, I’m curious to hear more from the Swede, and apparently more is to come over on PokerNews. However, I wouldn’t blame him should he decide to resume his former policy of keeping mum. The safer path, it seems.

(I’m not big on Tolkein minutiae, but I guess his Isildur was finally taken down by a group of attackers after taking a less safe path.)

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Sat up into the wee hours following online that there heads-up clash last night. Went much longer than most observers — including yr humble gumshoe — had guessed it would. Over three hours, I believe, with Joe Cada finally outlasting Darvin Moon in a genuinely compelling, hard fought battle for the bracelet.
(Photos in this post by the great FlipChip, natch.)

Had great fun following the coverage on PokerNews, reading all the tweets, and listening to the Bluff Magazine audio. Usually I’d first read insta-reports of each action on Twitter, then hear David Chicotsky, Phil Hellmuth, Joe Sebok, and a rotating group of others comment on the Bluff feed, then read the short hand narratives by FerricRamsium and Donnie Peters. I’d also occasionally skip over to Dr. Pauly’s live blog, the ESPN blog kept by Andrew Feldman, the PokerStars blog, and a few other sites, too, to help fill out the scene. (Oh, and while yr poking around those links, check out F-Train’s “November Nine Errata” for a few more items of interest.)

Altogether gave a pretty good sense of what was happening, although I’ll certainly be intrigued to watch what ESPN puts together for tonight’s show, too.

As I say, the action last night was fairly gripping, I thought. Some high-drama hands in there, as well as enough back-and-forthing for some thought-provoking patterns to emerge.

It appeared on the very first hand that Moon had missed a great opportunity — and perhaps displayed yet another example of awkward (or flat-out bad) play. Moon chose to limp in from the small blind/button, and we’d soon learn he held pocket queens. Cada then raised to 3.5 million from the big blind, and Moon called. The pair managed to put another 20 million each in the middle on the next two streets, but both checked the river, at which point Cada showed pocket tens. The two kings and one ace among the community cards surely kept all of Moon’s chips from going into the middle in that one, and it seemed clear that had he gone ahead and committed them preflop, Cada probably would’ve come along.

In other words, it looked like from the first hand that Moon should have doubled up and taken the chip lead away from Cada, but instead he’d only closed the gap to about 110 million to 85 million. It also looked like the night was going to be over quickly.

But that didn’t happen. For the next ten hands Moon chipped away, then took the lead in Hand No. 12 of heads up. Cada raised his button to 2.5 million for the sixth straight time, and Moon called. The flop came , Moon checked, Cada continued for 3.5 million, and Moon check-raised to 8.5 million. Cada called. Both checked the turn, then when the river came , Moon bet 7.25 million and Cada called him. Moon showed — the flop check-raise had been with air, and he’d paired up on the turn — and Cada mucked.

Was partly happenstance, but somehow Moon had gotten the lead without going all in. Not once had Moon been all in with his tourney life at risk for the entire WSOP Main Event. That streak was still alive! And would remain so until the very last hand of the tournament, in fact.

After those first dozen hands it had become clear that Moon (a) was not going to play a passive, easily exploitable game, and (b) was not appearing to be playing an orthodox or “standard” game, either. Won’t presume to judge how well either player played without seeing hole cards, but it certainly seemed that despite Moon’s own protestations that he’d had practically zero experience at heads up, he was providing Cada — who plays mostly heads-up online — a genuine challenge.

Cada would soon take the lead back, though. And by the time they took their first break of the night (after 52 hands played) they were essentially dead even. Over the next dozen hands Moon took several sizable pots, and suddenly he was sitting with a nearly 3-to-1 chip advantage with 145 million to Cada’s almost 50 million. Cada pushed all in before the flop on Hand No. 70 of heads up, but Moon declined. Then in Hand No. 80 came what was really the pivotal moment of the match.

The blinds at that point were 600,000/1.2 million (with a 200,000 ante). Cada raised to 3 million from the button, and Moon called. The flop came , and both checked. The turn brought the , and after Moon checked Cada bet 3 million. Moon check-raised all in, and after a long think Cada made the call with . Moon showed — an open-ended straight draw. The river was the , and Cada had rebounded to take the lead once more.

An interesting play by Moon, and it sounded like Cada nearly let go of his hand, but he ultimately made the big call. There was a little break right after that hand, and one could hear the two players talking in the background of the Bluff Magazine audio broadcast. Cada could be heard sincerely complimenting Moon’s play, making reference to the fact that he plays a lot of heads up and that Moon compared favorably to his usual competition. Struck me as a pretty mature-sounding thing to say for the kid from Michigan who doesn’t turn 22 until later this month. Also humble, providing a stark contrast to the commentary by Hellmuth in the foreground.

Speaking of the Poker Brat, he was just 24 when he won the 1989 WSOP, holding pocket nines for the winning hand. And as it would turn out, Cada would also have pocket nines — — in Hand No. 88 of heads up, what would turn out to be the last hand of the night.

Again Cada raised to 3 million from the button, Moon reraised to 8 million, Cada pushed, and Moon called with . The board ran out , and Cada became the youngest Main Event champ ever.

After a wild Saturday night/Sunday morning full of surprising suckouts and some pretty obvious missteps, it seems that Monday’s denouement helped improve the reputations of both players as skillful competitors. While each surely benefited from good fortune, sometimes in highly dramatic fashion, both showed they can play Texas hold’em, and so in that battle between luck and skill I was alluding to yesterday, skill did (in a sense) perhaps “win out.”

I’m not alone, I don’t think, in liking both of these guys. Probably somewhat better for poker that the one who seems primed to join the professional circuit — and not the fellow content to go back into the woods with his chainsaw (as amiable as he is) — ended up on top.

Am thinking more and more that next year I might just have to angle a way to get back out to Vegas in November to witness this spectacle go down. As I mentioned already, in 2008 I didn’t really have much of a pull to be there once they finally resumed the sucker. But this year I did, and I don’t think it was just because of the prospect of being there to see a Phil Ivey victory.

Yeah, as fun as the online coverage was to follow, I think it would be fun to see the November Nine with my own peepers. And my peeps.

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Vera’s mother visited this weekend, and she brought us some snacks and this big ol’ bag of coffee. Good thing, too, ’cos they are still goin’ over at the Rio. Time to drink up.

Spoilers here, y’all. But I imagine anyone landing here should know that.

At the moment, four players remain — Antoine Saout, Eric Buchman, Darvin Moon, and Joe Cada — all of whom are just above or below the 50-million chip mark. (Average with four players left is a little under 49 mil.) Has been 16 hours or so since the first hand of the final table was dealt, and with the blinds currently 400,000/800,000 (with a 100,000 ante), it might be a while longer before they get down to the final two.

Some time ago, Ivey got short and in Hand No. 175 pushed his last 6.5 million or so with A-K and was called by Darvin Moon who held A-Q. A queen flopped, no king came for Ivey, and the player with seven WSOP bracelets was out in seventh. A dozen hands later, Steve Begleiter hit the rail in sixth, again victimized by Moon. “Begs” was all in with pocket queens, Moon again had A-Q, and they made it to the river before the ace popped out. Then in Hand No. 236, a short-stacked Jeff Shulman lost a race with pocket sevens against Saout’s A-Q to go out in fifth.

F-Train and FerricRamsium still continue to trade off the reporting of hands over at PokerNews, and they’re killin’ it. As B.J. Nemeth once noted with regard to poker tourney reporting, these guys are writing the “first draft of history,” and they’re doing a helluva a job.

Oh, and Phil Hellmuth is still talking about how great of a player he is over on the Bluff Magazine audio broadcast. Actually I like Hellmuth’s commentary for the most part, and have enjoyed what I’ve heard over there when I’ve been tuning in.

Sounds like what they are experiencing at the Penn & Teller Theater is a lot like what we thought would happen back in July on Day 8 — when the last 27 players returned to those deep, deep stacks and everyone said it’d be the morning before play was concluded. Chips went a-flyin’, though, and the final nine were determined before 11 p.m.

So these nine returned to even deeper stacks. And day moved into night. And now night into day.

Okay, got a fresh cup here. Let’s all head back over to PokerNews’ live reporting page to see which two from these four make it through to Monday night. And we should remember also to trip over to Dr. Pauly’s live blog of the proceedings, too.

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Our buddy Kevmath over on Pokerati has linked us up to the official media guide for the 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine, a 26-page document which I assume was primarily pulled together by our other friend, the indefatigable Media Director of the WSOP, Nolan Dalla. Thought I’d pass along a few interesting trivia bits from the guide regarding this weekend’s festivities.

Play begins at the Penn & Teller Theater in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on Saturday at noon Vegas time, with the remaining nine playing down to the final two. Those two players will then return on Monday night at 10 p.m. Vegas time to play it out. Once again, here are those chippies and seat assignments:

Seat 1: Darvin Moon (1st, 58,930,000)
Seat 2: James Akenhead (9th, 6,800,000)
Seat 3: Phil Ivey (7th, 9,765,000)
Seat 4: Kevin Schaffel (6th, 12,390,000)
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter (3rd, 29,885,000)
Seat 6: Eric Buchman (2nd, 34,800,000)
Seat 7: Joe Cada (5th, 13,215,000)
Seat 8: Antoine Saout (8th, 9,500,000)
Seat 9: Jeff Shulman (4th, 19,580,000)

They are almost finished with Level 33 (just seven-plus minutes left), where the blinds are 120,000/240,000, and antes 30,000. That means after just a few hands they’ll be posting blinds of 150,000/300,000 and antes of 40,000.

Leafing through the guide, we learn a few new things about the players (in “thumbnail bios”). More interesting is a breakdown of the scheduled payouts:

1st — $8,547,042
2nd — $5,182,928
3rd — $3,479,670
4th — $2,502,890
5th — $1,953,452
6th — $1,587,160
7th — $1,404,014
8th — $1,300,231
9th — $1,263,602

All nine players have already received ninth-place prize money ($1,263,602). The guide tells us that the remaining $15 million-plus was placed “in a risk-free Goldman Sachs Treasury-Only Money Market interest-bearing account,” and over the course of three-and-a-half months accrued $1,321 interest.

Yeah, that’s what it says. $1,321. As Mean Gene says in a comment over on Pokerati, that piddling total of “$1,321 wouldn’t cover the Jack’s Links Beef Jerky tab for Media Row for one week during the WSOP.”

Something highly weird going on with that figure, as last year a similar process was followed and the yet-to-be-awarded prize money had earned nearly $100,000 in interest during the 100-plus day wait for the final table. In any event, the interest was only added to the top eight spots, so the first guy to go on Saturday will not be taking home anything more than what he’s already received. That first-place prize easily eclipses the largest cash prizes earned in any other individual sport, the closest being the $3,048,055 Hélio Castroneves earned for winning the Indianapolis 500 in May of this year.

There is also a section explaining that a pro hasn’t won since 2001 (Carlos Mortensen). According to the guide, four of the nine players at this year’s final table are recognized as professionals — Akenhead, Buchman, Cada, and Ivey — with two more (Shulman and Saout) described as “semi-pros.” It’s a fuzzy distinction, really, but I’d think if Ivey, Shulman, Buchman, or Akenhead won, there wouldn’t be too much disputing the claim that the seven-year streak of amateurs winning the Main Event had been snapped. I guess Cada, too, although the dude had only been old enough to play live poker legally in the U.S. for six months or so prior to the start of this year’s WSOP.

Also of note, in 2009 there were a total of 60,875 player registrations for the 57 bracelet events, breaking last year’s record of 58,720.

There’s some other stuff about the planned Hall of Fame ceremony during which Mike Sexton will be officially enshrined. And way, way more info about Jack Link’s Beef Jerky than one could ever hope for, including a comprehensive rundown of the company’s various offerings. Most distressing: something called the “Sasquatch Big Stick,” which comes in “Angry” and “Happy” flavors.

Uh, no thanks. Not messin’ with that.

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