Montgomery on His Way to Finals and Loving It

It was in the month of February when Scott Montgomery first appeared in Los Angeles Poker Classic big-buy-in poker tournaments, where he finished at fifth position. It was his first World Poker Tour effort where he managed to cash out for $296,860. Since then, Scott, a poker pro from Perth, Ontario, has added over $72,000 with three cashed in World Series of Poker 2008 to his collection.

Scott was really satisfied and happy how the things had turned out for him as he made it to the final table of the Main Event. He added that it has been a good year for him. There was another reason for his smiles and that was that he had made his first ever television debut on World Poker Tour.

Scott said that he is really lucky to reach where he is today. He said that he thinks he is a good player but also that he got lucky in all his beginning tournaments. Scott said that he started playing poker on the internet. It was after couple of years when he watched it on the television and started playing on the internet and then shifted to live.

“It just happened by chance that I took part in the Los Angeles Poker Classic and in that I luckily made it to the final table. For some strange reasons I manage to perform better in the major tournaments and it can be because the way I play which is quite aggressive. For the smaller tournaments you just cannot bluff the players off hands and that is how I generate my money.” He said.

He supported his comment and said that people need to have a careless attitude if they want to win. He said “That is exactly what I keep telling myself all the way.” Scott was asked whether he is a tournament player or he likes to play cash also, for which Scott explained a little about his game play and said that whenever he is online he likes to play tournaments and when he is live he prefers to play cash. He just dislikes playing cash online and he just don’t like online cash games.

According to him the best way to register a winning in cash games is to study your opponents as you can easily judge their moves and their limitations. But when you are playing online cash you just cannot play for over half an hour. The best thing about playing live is that you are playing against the same players for the complete day and this is how you get to make money.

Commenting on the final nine players Scott said that as he does not have a good memory he won’t be remembering them until the month of November. Scott said that he loves playing poker and he is so much into it. He added that he will be traveling for next four months and will take part in a variety of tournaments. He was optimistic that Los Angels will be good for him.

Mike Watson: From an online pro to WPT Champion

Things were not easier for Mike Watson when he knew he had to go heads-up with David Benyamine. At the final table, Mike really was determined and played very efficiently. He said that after the win he is now feeling great and that it was his dream which he successfully turned it into reality. Mike said that he favored a lot of hands as during the game there were situations where he was on top for quite a while.

Mike admitted that he had to face a down moment where he had to lose one big pot to Luke but he made a roaring come back at the right moment. As for his opponent David, Mike made a comment that he is tough competitor and he said that he is a kind of player that Mike will not prefer playing a lot of heads-up with. Mike informed that the competition was tough and all players at the final table were very competitive. He added that he didn’t anticipate smooth sail out against any of the players present at the final table.

Mike said that previously he entered five World Poker Tournaments but he was not able to cash in three of them. He said that he had seven cashes lifetime in WPT from which five of them came in the year 2007 and two of them came in the year 2008. Mike was really busy this summer as he played a great deal at World Series of Poker. He added that he had the similar schedule last year.

On Day 1 Mike said that he finished up tilting his whole stack. But this year things were little different for him as he has become more experienced playing more live tournaments. He admitted that he entered this tournament after one more fruitless World Series but he remained positive and was ready to face challenges. Mike said at times playing a lot of tournaments can be really uncomfortable. He added that his anticipations are always high but there was a moment where he felt that he is not going to make it this time. But on the contrary he was really happy and satisfied that he eventually made it in the end.

Mike really felt good when he heard the whole crowd cheering his name. He said that the noise didn’t distract him and whenever he used to win a pot the crowd was right behind him. He told that he just sat there keeping it cool and it was really exciting to witness the crowd with all the things that they were doing. He informed that this win probably will have an affect on him but the things will remain the same as they are for me in the game of poker.

Mike said that he is very comfortable with all those games that he is playing. He said that for the last six months he had played a lot and he didn’t want to go beyond that anymore till Novemeber.

Newest Russian pro at WSOP- Ivan Demidov

Ivan Demidov is the newest player coming from Moscow, Russia and making it big in World Series of Poker. In the last two years of WSOP, Ivan is the second player from Russia who has successfully made it to the final table, the first one being Alex Kravchenko. Telling more about himself, Ivan said that when he first played poker, he was studying mathematics at one of the best universities in Russia. He said that although he was not planning to do anything further in mathematics, it was altogether a good experience.

Ivan said that he did not think he was a great player, but rather an average player. He said that he had just started playing on the internet and before this World Series he had never played much live. Ivan is having a math background but he disagreed when he was called a math-based player. He admitted that there is an important connection between the math and the game but he said that you need more than just math to register a win.

Ivan said that you have to really stretch your limits and be prepared to play all sorts of players. He added that this is the important part of the game that he had developed here while playing live. In the beginning he was not able to understand the player and that is quite understood, but I am learning and getting better with the time. Ivan was here last summer but this was his first WSOP.

Knowing the fact that Ivan is not an experienced live poker player he still enjoyed an eventful summer. In one of the beginning bracelet events he almost managed to make it to the final table and had a chance of becoming the next World Champion. He really had to adjust his game play from playing live against playing online. Ivan said that yes it was hard for him and he is not quite sure of the reasons. He made a guess and said that one of the reasons could be that he is not accustomed to playing at one table. He added that at the same time may be he is a little impatient that could be the reason as he was making too much moves and opting bad spots.

In the beginning I didn’t felt comfortable to play the game like I was supposed to play. I was also not able to read my opponents but I just continued my game play. Ivan added that lack of confidence can also be one of the reasons. He said that during the tournament he had some runs but the luck didn’t seem to be on his side and was not able to play further.

Ivan said that the decision for delaying the final table and postponing until the month of November will only give rise to a probable collusion. He said, in the next four months, he would be playing more big events and certainly more on EPT. Ivan added that these big tournaments are no child’s play and you have to really depend on luck factor for doing well.

An accountant into the Main Event: Darus Suharto

Darus Suharto was born in Indonesia and is an accountant by profession. He raced into the final table of the Main Event with a score of $900,670. He said that he was feeling very good and could not express his feelings in words.

Darus informed that it is his second time at the World Series and he had played in the year 2006. He said that he played some of the minor events at Caesars Palace but unfortunately he couldn’t do well there. But those were minor events and it didn’t have any importance for him, as he performed well in big one.

Darus was kind enough to narrate how he played at the last day of the Main Event. He said he was under the average starting his game play with $4.5 million. It wasn’t a smooth start for him and said that he was down at $3.2 million. He then pulled up his socks and things started to improve for him. Prior to dinner break it really went out well for him as he was at $13 million and the game was only between eighteen contestants. He felt good as he was in the second position with his chip count.

But things started getting worse after the dinner break for him as he was not able to catch any of the cards. He was forced back to $7.2 million landing at the bottom two with the chip counts. Darus thought that on the button Joe Bishop had ace-queen and he raised it at $700,000. Joe called and the way Joe was playing he could have easily acquired an ace.

At this moment Darus had to think how much he could bet so that he could get fold equity, all while not showing how stronger his hand was. The moment Darus bet $3.5 million Joe declared that he was all-in. Darus said that he wasn’t sure and he really had a hard time guessing what he was having. He thought that Joe will not push with a set and most likely he would smooth-call. Finally Darus was certain that Joe had ace-queen and he even said that to Joe.

Darus said that if my guess is wrong then let it be but he had the best hand. He called and showed Kings and Joe flipped ace-queen which at last went as a good guess.
Darus informed that he had no one from his family there watching but he had some of his friends in town. Even though he had already showed Kings he was not sure of the situation as anything could have happened anytime. There were probabilities that on the run a queen could show or an ace. So at that moment the best for him was to wait and in the end his patience paid off which took him to $16 million.

Darus said that the money that he had won, he would firstly use it to pay off his mortgage. He was quite thrilled that he had won more than enough for paying off his mortgage and enjoying the rest of the cash for himself.

Impact of WSOP on Vegas revenues being analyzed

The Vegas strip is now looking forward to the impact of World Series of Poker 2008 on the economic zone. This years’ WSOP has had an amazing welcome, making it much more popular than all the other WSOP events in the past.

This change in the acceptance towards World Series of poker among players and poker lovers is now being looked in deeply for its effect on the economic ups and downs. The year witnessed a large number of entrants taking part in this poker tournament. Also the year also witnessed the second longest event in the history of this tournament.

WSOP being one of the major poker tournaments was rescheduled from spring session to summer session, when it was taken over by current owner Harrah entertainment in an anticipation of boosting the number of players taking interest as well as to speed up the slow business.

Vegas revenues suffered a huge fall by a startling rate, but the grown attendance of players in WSOP this year is expected to wipe off the tension of economic backdrop. Many consider that the popularity enhancement is the result of change in schedule, which was June-July for the year 2008. The extended time-span of event of this year has acted as a crowd puller and added to the publicity as well as popularity of World Series of Poker and the poker business in economic ways. This anticipation is one of the many reasons behind the analysis of the Las Vegas revenues.

Foreign players add to the growth of WSOP

In spite of a fall in number of players visiting Las Vegas, this year saw a change in numbers through the World Series of Poker tournament. The increase in number of players in WSOP is a result of the entry of many foreign players in the tournament.

Seth Palansky, spokesperson WSOP, mentioned that the sudden boost to World Series of Poker was a result of players that came from outside United States. Seth said that this year’s tournament pulled more foreign players as compared to any other year.

The series witnessed record number of players despite the fall in Las Vegas gambling revenues. Las Vegas Convention and Visitors authority confirmed a 3.7 percent downfall faced by Clark County consisting of Strip casino of Las Vegas.

According to WSOP officials this year’s registration was eight percent high as compared to previous year, whereas the pool prize was $180.7 million, a 13 percent high from last year’s $159.8 million. The series will also witness a final prize amount of $9.12 million to be given in November for the Main event.

The $10,000 buy-in main event saw a rush of 6,844 participants and majority of these players were from 72 different countries, while few belonging to United States. To which spokesperson Palansky admitted that growth in the number of entrants is because of major number of entries coming from countries out of United States.

Ex-champion Joe Hachem believes that the reason behind players from outside the America showing such interest in WSOP is the wide coverage by ESPN. Joe said that people outside watch the tournament and dream of beating players with their tricks and to earn a bracelet. Another champion Jerry Yang also admits that the growth of poker is now being noticed in other countries too; making players from different countries get interested and visit WSOP.
World Series of Poker 2007 witnessed a final table with players coming from nations like Canada, England, South Africa and Russia and more, beside those from United States.

Dennis Phillips leads the list of favorites as fans await WSOP Main Event

World series of poker (WSOP) 2008 moves in to final stage of the tournament with only nine players left. While the fans await the finale and the organizers settle to once again set the table for the battle, all the participants are busy polishing their skills and tricks. The Main event is set to take place after a gap of four months in November.

After entering the final table as the chip lead, Dennis Phillips also tops the list of favorite poker players, whom the fans are betting on. Dennis who will be heading to the finale with a chip count of 26, 295,000 is closely followed by second in lead Ivan Demidov, who holds 24,000,000 chip stack. Both the top two leads are at +425 in the chase of the first position, $9 million and the gold bracelet.

The third player in the lead is the player from Canada, Scott Montgomery at +475, who is trailed by Peter Eastgate at +525.

The battle of Main event also has other players who sustain the final table, at odds double the top three players. Ylon Schwartz and David Chino Rheem are following at +800 and +850 position, respectively. Whereas, names like Craig Marquis and Darus Suharto hanging on with +950 and +900 odds, respectively. Another such player holding on in the finale table is Kelly Kim, who came from being an underdog to one of the finalist of Main event.

The WSOP Main event is due and will see its final table set in month of November, as all the final nine players will come face to face for the last time hoping to win the tournament.

Peter Eastgate seals fourth place in the final

Peter Eastgate moves into the finale by sealing the fourth position in the final nine, with around $18 million chips in his pocket. This poker player from Denmark is also one of the two European finalists to face the battle, for the $9million and the esteemed gold bracelet.

Casinosdiary.com got a chance to have few words from this finalist of WSOP 2008 on his play so far.

When asked about the bubble of Day-7, the event that and the whole experience of reaching final table, Peter said that game was quite tight with player like Kelly Kim struggling with short-stack and Dean Hamrick getting busted. On his play, Peter disclosed that he was lucky to have picked lots of chips and from a start of $10.5 million he moved on having a chip stack of $18 million. He also recalls raising with aces in a big pot and benefiting.

About the delay in final table format, Peter firmly believed that the delay will not be affecting his play that much and he would be spending al his time in studying, the play of other players. Peter admits having a lot of knowledge on the moves and play, but he feels watching them play on tapes will help him confirm his ideas. He added that the delay is good for poker business and adding hype to it. He also agreed that he would have to readjust his plans, as every player will come back as a different and improved player after all the tutoring sessions.

About being representing Denmark in the finale, he said that things can change anytime and it’s difficult to fell anything right now. He recalled last year’s Denmark representative Philip Hilm getting busted out at the ninth position.

Casinosdiary.com asked him of his plans in the coming gap of four months, to which peter admitted that he wishes to play as much tournaments as possible to improve and prepare for the finale in November. Thanking him for his time, Casinosdiary.com wished him a great play in finale.

Kim Kelly talks on his entry in the final

Californian professional Kelly Kim managed to squeeze into the final nine of the WSOP 2008 finale, occurring in the month of November. With around $2.62 millions of chips on his side, Kelly is right next to Craig Marquis with a gap of over $8 millions.

With three WSOP cash prizes in his resume, Kelly managed to push himself into the final table even with a short stack around 13 players. Casiosdiary.com caught up with this Korean born business analyst turned poker star on his struggle to make it into the big nine.

When asked to express his emotions on being a part of the WSOP final table for year 2008, Kelly said it feels fantastic and dreamlike to him. He also disclosed his agony and unhappiness on coming 10th. He also said that now it’s so much from playing for big money to waiting for four long months, all along with photographs and interviews. Kelly admitted all this felt awesome and great. He also said that its amazing to see him-self in the final nine, big pay and a chance of coming back even after four months.

Kelly also admitted that he is not going in with big expectations and hopes, as he is moving with small and not so great chip count and is doing nothing but free-rolling.

On play of Day-7, Kelly recalled a entering in with a chip bed of $8.8 million which he got from a card rack play of previous day as it got him from $2.4 to $8.8 million. He also declared his play of Day-7 as a bad care day, as he remembers not getting any king or ace. He did get jacks twice but no big hand. Kelly reveled that he survived by not picking up chips and reraising players with huge hands. Like any other player, Kelly to wished and yearned for big hands and a chance to play them against smaller hands.

He also blames his failure to adjust his strategy towards the end of the play and wish he could just go back and make few changes. Kelly also thinks that the major error he made was to play tight when he could play loose and later, when he got short of stack he had to play tight with no other option.

Calling himself an underdog of the tournament, Kelly still hopes to get big and lucky with 10 big blinds. He also calls himself lucky to playing $9 million.

On his plans for the gap of next four months, Kim Kelly says he is planning to have some fun with friends who have been there for him all the time. He also admits his plan of playing tournaments at Bike as the legend of poker is on its way.

Before getting back to his day’s activities, Kim Kelly also talked about his poker career so far. He said he got into tournaments a year ago, when he went through success and failures at the same time. But he did not play much of tournaments in last one and half year as it started wearing him down. He also said that he could not and would never miss playing Main event tournament.

Lead holder for the finale, Dennis Phillips talks to Casinosdiary.com

Dennis Phillips is the oldest player among the field of young players in the finale and right now is leading them all. This lead player of the Day-7 will come back in November to fight for the championship title. With a whooping amount of $900,000 already set in his path, Dennis has four months of time to think and plan for his efforts so far.

Casinosdiary.com caught up with Dennis on his amazing grip on the lead, his plans and his poker experience.

On his background and poker beginning, Dennis told Casinosdiary.com he lives at the outskirt of St Louis and works with a truck dealer, basically works by selling the trucks to roofers and contractors. He said that he liked cash games and on finding some talent him, Dennis moved onto the tournaments. When asked about his plans now, Dennis said he is soon heading back to his work.

Dennis reveled that it has been fours years in the card business for him and he has been enjoying his playing years. Also that due to his knack for cards games and contract bridge, he is used to cards pretty well.

When asked to attribute his current status to something he said it was luck of getting right cards at right time. Dennis believes he played all his cards fairly and nicely to reach to this point.

Casiosdiary.com also asked Dennis about the delay in the event and what he feels about it, to which he said that he would love to play this thing right now and right away in stead of waiting for four long months. He admitted that he is all pumped up and ready to go on with the finale, thus wouldn’t mind to just continue with it without a delay. But he also said that there is a format to be followed and he wouldn’t mind waiting either.

About his plans for next four months, he said that he would first go for some sleep and once he is ready to move, he would try doing things to improve his skills. Dennis also mentioned that he hasn’t taken any coaching yet and would try to work with own capabilities.

Dennis declined to name the player he thinks is the toughest and hardest to face in the table. He also said that he will now watch all the tapes to get some knowledge on the moves and play of other player; also he believes that’s what everyone else will do. Dennis feels nine down for 7000 players means nothing but a filed of good and skilled players.

Before moving ahead Dennis happily showed the envelope of party invitation from Rio and said that every nine player is going there, to have fun and get instructions for further format.