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Keith Hawkins: The Heads-up sit-and-go pro

Keith Hawkins is best known as a Heads-up sit-and-go pro and on PokerStars he often plays $500 and $1,000 NL games. As for Day 5 of the tournament Keith is one of the remaining players from Britain at WSOP Main Event 2008.

Keith was asked as how the things are going so far for him and how was his day, for which he replied that in the second hand of the day he lost $100,000 but since then he has played competitively and didn’t lose a pot. Before the break Keith managed to hit a mini-rush and in four hands, he managed to make the nuts twice, plus getting paid.

Keith said that he did rise with nine and eight of diamonds, one of the contestants called and flop came 7-6-x and afterwards a4. He further said that it was followed by a5 along with a pair of eights. Subsequently, his big stack limped and he was having A-J in the blind. Prior to the end of the play Keith lost a million-chip pot along with the aces against the flopped set of sixes, for which Keith commented that it was most likely under a million and that he should have thought for some more time.

He was of the view that he somehow knew that his opponent will make a move on him as his stack was just perfect for the check-raise. He was asked that now you have David Benefield sitting on your left side for which Keith replied that he didn’t know much about David. Keith added that previously he had played online with David but now he is playing quite tight.

Keith informed that he is not a kind of player who is very good at concentrating so he likes to play heads-up online sit-and-go. He said he was quite busy so he was not able to see much of the hands. Keith added that he is not at all missing his online game play and he added that to play two-hour levels is quite testing.

When Keith was asked that how is your table playing going for which Keith replied that he is feeling comfortable at this table against the previous table where Keith was having Mark Vos on his left side and he was busy raising each pot. Keith added that he was aware of the fact that the table will break quickly so he was determined to sit tight.

Keith said that he doesn’t have any target amount of chips as he took the moment as it comes. The structure is not very fast and he takes the hand as it arrives at the same time not thinking much about the average.

Dennis Phillips holds the lead, as the survivors head the final

Event $10,000 NLHE World Championship, Day-7
15th July

This second largest event in the history of World Series of Poker tournament, started with 6,844 poker players and on the Day-7 it has come down to final nine. The lead holder at the end of the Day-6 Denis Phillips successfully cruised through the Day-7, with the lead still on his side. In spite of being the oldest poker player in this event dominated by young guns, Dennis holds the lead and will come back in November as the player on top.

Day-7 started with 27 players all chasing to be in final nine and be a part of the finale, planned for month of November. The first elimination of the day was Michael Carroll whose A-9 couldn’t stand against pocket fours of opponent Gert Andersen, which was followed by A-5-4 flop.

On the day Day-7 the field had only two WSOP bracelet winners Phil Ngyun and Brandon Cantu. Phil also a $2,500 NLHE winner of year 2003 and a winner of $1,500 NLHE Shootout event of year 2004 was later eliminated, at 26th position. He stumbled as he raised his A-10 against pocket jacks of opponent Paul Snead. With the 77th money finish of his poker career, Phil left the event with $257,334. Cantu a winner of $1,500 NLHE event of the year 2006 also got eliminated on the Day-7, at 20th position. He fell short of stack as he called Dean Hamrick in pre-flop. With Cantu’s 10-5 and Hamrick’s pocket aces, the board was 8-7-5-8-10.

The second woman to reach so deep in WSOP championship, Tiffany Michelle after an effortless journey so far got eliminated at the 17th position with $334,534. Tiffany pushed for an A-10-9 flop with a hand of A-J, which was called by Peter Eastgate who held the moment sealing pocket aces.

The youngest player of the Day-7 was 21 year old Aaron Gordon who got eliminated at 24th place, just ahead of Tim Locke who finished 23rd in the first live tournament of his career. The second in the lead at the end of Day-6, Craig Marquis dominated Paul Sneed and pushed him out of the tournament at 21st position.

The table for finale got set after the elimination of Den Hammrick at the 10th position on the Day-7. With Dean getting an amount of $591,869 for his play, the scene for finale got cleared and the rest of the players got a promised payout for the 9th position which is $900,670.

Phillips, who has been on the leader-board since yesterday, kept his hold on its lead status even as the Day-7 came to its conclusion. After forcing Peter Eastgate out of the tournament, Phillips moved onto playing against Scott Montgomery and Ylon Schwatrtz. With the chase getting excited at every second of the day, Phillips moved from 1.2 million bet to a chip stack of 24 million.

The final nine players to play again in November for $10,000 NLHE World Championship finale of WSOP 2008 are Dennis Phillips (26,295,000), Ivan Demidov (24,400,000), Scott Montgomery (19,690,000), Peter Eastgate (18,375,000), Ylon Schwartz (12,525,000), Darus Suharto (12,520,000), David Rheem (10,230,000), Craig Marquis (10,210,000) and Kelly Kim (2,620,000).

David Rheem talks about his journey to final nine

Moving into the finale as the player on seventh position is David ‘Chino’ Rheem, with $10,230,000.after a long and exhausting Day-7, Rheem decided to speak to casiosdiary.com.

Rheem feels that after making to this deep makes him little recognizable and that now people will be noticing him, to see how he moves on from here. He also admitted that this time he would try not to repeat any of his mistakes he committed in previous World Series of Poker finals. Rheem added that in spite of being at a crucial position in the series he feels no pressure and is lucky to be still in. He said that if he is destined to win he will, thus will go in the finale with no worry. He said that all he will do is play and see what’s going to happen.

About his plans for next four months, Rheem made a joke that he wouldn’t be going for any coaching or learning session and will go drunk every night. He also laughed and said that he wont think or plan, but will raise every pot on his conviction and without looking.

When asked about is he pleased with how he has been playing so far, Rheem said he is very pleased with his play and specially the fact that every day he was in the top 10-20 names of leader-board. He also said that his happiness is also because of getting amazing table draws at the first few days.

Rheem recalled sitting on a table with players like Owen Crowe, Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow. He said that the key to playing good is to not to give up. He said having short stack might be disappointing but it also means you are still in the game. Not giving up is key to playing; he said as yesterday in spite of being down and short of stack he held on, won a flip and again climbed up, having his grip back in the game.

About the limelight and attention that comes with poker, Rheem said that he plays for money and not fame, but since this tournament come with both he wouldn’t mind. He said that he will try to make use of all the opportunities and advantages that will come in his way, and would pay all his attention on the wining. Casiosndiary.com wished David Rheem all the best for his finale in November!

Ylon Schwartz is deep in WSOP and happy about it

Ylon Schwartz is one of those poker players who believe that making big moves might be important, but to stay in radar is equally essential. During the dinner break of Day-7 Ylon spoke to Casinosdiary.com about his going deep in World Series of Poker 2008.

When asked about his journey in WSOP 2008 so far, Ylon said that he has been moving by playing small pots. He also said that with so many beginners at World Series, it’s always easy to wait and watch for mistakes being made around and all you need to do then is make use of them.

Ylon also said mentioned that for past few days of the game, he had been struggling with short stacks and finally when he touched big amount of stack, he moved to the TV table. He added that moving on to TV table scared him a bit, as he has been playing poker for 25 years now and this was his first TV table. He said that he freaked at some points and is glad to have the dinner break, for few minutes ago he was against ace-queen of a TV guy who made $350,000 and he got $1.6 millions.

Ylon has played with almost everyone in the field at this point, which is why he even took risk of calling a young player with whom he had played earlier too.

When asked about the player who impressed him the most in this year’s tournament, Ylon said that he is quite impressed with David Rheem’s play. He says that David is good and could have been better if he was little tight in his play. Ylon likes the style of David, which is either to go big or go broke. He also took Mike Matusow’s name, he said though Mike wasn’t much lucky he did play pretty well.

When asked about his poker journey, Ylon said reveled that he loved chess at the age of 13 and from chess he moved on to pool, golf, backmmon, darts and so on. He has been playing poker for 25 years now.

About his game so far, he said that he did not played with Main event on his mind and took every day as a challenge.

Before going back to his play for the day, Ylon told casiosdiary.com that if he won Main event he would love to go a place like Guatemala, where there would be no phones and no one to recognize him.

Dennis Phillips survives Day-6 $10,000 NLHE World Championship as the lead

Event – $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em
14th July 2008

Ten days after its beginning, the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Championship of WSOP 2008 is now left with 79 players out of the field 6,844 poker players. The numbers of players left on Day-6 were all chasing the prize money of $9,111,517 and the celebrated gold bracelet. For all those making so deep in second largest event of world series of poker so far were enjoying the feel of it all, the tournament also witnessed for the very first time its payouts going over the mark of six-figure.

The day began with 79 players out of which only 27 could survive its grilling session; these survivors will face another day of poker with Dennis Philips in the lead. Oldest player of the finale, this 53 year old won his ticket to Main event by wining a satellite event in St. Louis, organized by Harrah’s casino. His closest opponent and second in chip lead Craig “craigmarq” Marquis is young, 23 years of age, online player who goes to college. Like Craig, the finale is filled with players all in their 20’s.

The player third in the position with third highest chip stack is young Tiffany Michelle, who is also the only women left in the event now. With Barbara Enright being the only women till date to reach so deep in WSOP finale championship, Tiffany has now got her shot to make history in poker.

The first elimination for Day-6 came in form of Bob Whalen, whose pocket jacks couldn’t catch up with opponent David Rheem’s 7-2. Whalen then got eliminated at 79th position, just ahead of the 78th elimination Matt Matros. Matt’s hand of A-7 couldn’t stand against pocket ‘threes’ of his opponent, David Saab. Next elimination in the row was of Mark Wild who attained his 19th WSOP lifetime finish, as his pocket eights fell against pocket nines of opponent Darus Suharto.

World Series of Poker bracelet winner, Thomas Kelller got eliminated at 61st position as his short stack with K-Q fell against opponent Jeremy Joseph’s hand of 7-6. Jeremy too got eliminated later at 57th position, as his pockets five failing against pocket jacks of opponent Gert Andersen.

Victor Ramdin gave his best WSOP finish with $96,500 for the 64th position finish, in Day-6 of NLHE Championship World Series of Poker 2008. For victor the game took a turn when he stumbled with a short stack as he got ace of heart and three of heart against pocket jacks of opponent Garrett Beckman.

The upcoming Day-7 for the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Championship WSOP 2008 is the last day for summer session and will bring out the final table, which will meet in November for the grand WSOP finale.

Top ten players in leader-board with their chip count are Dennis Phillips (11,910,000), Craig Marquis (11,460,000), Tiffany Michelle (9,755,000), Peter Eastgate (9,325,000), Kelly Kim (8,840,000), David ‘Chino’ Rheem (8,280,000), Gert Andersen (6,740,000), Paul Snead (6,600,000), Chris Klodnicki 6,245,000 and Toni Judet (5,000,000).

Craig Marquis rocks on Day-6 of Main event

Craig Marquis a Texas native is on a good lead in this year’s Day-6 of Main Event tournament. With a chip lead of $11 millions on his side, Craig is doing pretty good and is expecting to dominate for a while. Casinosdiary.com asked him questions about his play of Day-6 and his plans for future.

When asked about his day, Craig seemed pleased about how the went for him. He said that he began the play with less than $2 million and in no time he managed a number of $11.5 millions, which is why he feels it went great.

Casinosdiary.com asked Craig to tell its reader little more, about his background and for how long has he been playing poker now. Craig disclosed that he comes from Arlington region of Texas and is an online player. He also said that he began his poker journey somewhere in January of year 2007 and that makes him a year and half year old poker player, in this business. Craig doesn’t forget to mention his friend Dave who helped him in getting into poker.

Craig Marquis is most of the time a cash player with cash games and is not much into tournaments, but also adds that WSOP is the only tournament he prefers. He said that lately he is also trying to focus into head-up cash games.

When asked about the number of events he played this year, Craig answered that he played around 18 events. He also mentioned that out of the 18 events, he cashed in only one event. Craig also talked of having little pressure; as he really wanted t make it to Main event.

On his biggest win in live poker, Craig proudly told Casinosdiary.com that last year he cashed $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event with $16,000, which was also his biggest cash ever in live poker game. Craig said that he is excited about his current situation and he keeps on having jokes about how he is saving all his best for Main event.

Casinos Diary also asked him about the turning point for him this year in WSOP tournament. Craig said that it’s probably the play of Day-4 with big hands and $147,000 chips, winning him two big pots. He also said that his today’s play has its own importance, as moved from $1.7 millions to $12 million with the momentum swinging high for him.

About the status of competition, Craig feels that the competition at this hour of the tournament is really tough and surprising. He also said every table has good players in them, better than you expected.

On the delay of final table, Craig said that it’s nice for players who need time to learn more about the game, but bad for those who are good and would love to wrap up the thing without much delay.

Before leaving casiosdiary.com with his answers, Craig also mentioned that he has no big strategy for tomorrow and will play solid and focused poker.

Mark Vos – The Cash Pro

Mark Vos is mainly an online cash game pro yet he will show up to play live tournaments from time to time. He is also one of the contenders for the final table at the Main Event and with his $1.3 million in chips he is one of the top ten players.

Informing about his native place he shared the information that he is originally from South Africa, he used to live in Cape Town and in the year 2001 he moved to Australia. He started playing poker just for fun with some of his friends at the University and subsequently I started playing on the internet. He said from that onwards he never looked back.

Mark said that he had three small cashes and he informed that it is his eleventh tournament. He said that although he has not won any of the big cashes but still he is alright with that. He added that he had lots of fun outside of the poker and poker can be boring at times. But now it feels like there will be some fun at last. During my WSOP day offs I went to San Diego for some days and had a nice time by the pool side. And he admitted that he is also been busy partying there. He said that he visited few parties at Hard Rock at Sunday School Rehab and basically having a good time with friends.

On using some special strategy during the game he said that now we are having a healthy number of chips along with the deep stacks so he was playing a lot of pots. It is just not the same as the other tournaments as he said that the other tournaments are preflop which eventually becomes boring. But these opponents are quite interesting as you can talk with them, have a laugh, or hopefully get some useful details out of them.

Mark said that while playing he is not affected by any sort of pressure and he added that he had been very close to winning big amounts at a number of tournaments. Mark said that once he was not playing that well but still he managed to win big amount. Mark informed that he had been in this kind of situation earlier but not as huge as this one. He said that he is not worried at all and he just enjoys the moment and plays his hand.

About traveling from one place to another Mark said that it really gets you and it makes you tired. But on the other hand he also admitted that it is really exciting to visit the places that he wanted to visit. Mike said that for instance Barcelona EPT for which he was really excited but now he has visited the place. Mark informed that after this he will be visiting Europe but it will be for holiday purposes.

Mark informed that he will be quitting tournament poker to some level. He also admitted that he never really was a tournament or live player. Mark added that he is a cash game player and he plays the tournaments just for having a good time/fun. As for the tournaments he had little success where the things went my way and I have won a major tournament. All in all it looks like that I am a pure online cash game player who is at the circuit just to have a good time.

Brandon Cantu speaks his mind on his WSOP journey

Brandon Cantu is enjoying his WSOP 2008 so far and hopes it makes a good memory for him like his success of WSOP 2006, where he won the first event of the series unlike WSOP 2007 that was calm and silent. This Las-Vegas player also won WPT this year.

With $2million chips in his platter, Cantu emerges as a big thing in the series for all those sitting in his table. Casinos Diary caught up with as he finished his Day-5, on his gaming so far.

The first thing Brandon was asked was to describe his day, to which he admitted that the day was little hard for him. Brandon said that even though he is up with a $2.2 millions in his side he still feels the days wasn’t good, also that he didn’t show the kind of gaming he showed in first four days. Admitting to be tired of the not so right play, Brandon admitted that he wasn’t happy about his day.

But, Brandon also said that he is excited to be having $2.2milions and to be one of the 79 players in the Main event. He says he is happy to be in a dream situation and hopes to come back tomorrow, in a well planned and the best game play ever.

When asked to explain the difference in last two years with 2007 going silent and 2008 kicking off well and deep, Brandon blamed his bad 2007 to his non-serious attitude towards poker. He said that he wasn’t taking his game too seriously, but now that this year he has chances of attaining player of the year title on some of the websites, he is focused and geared up.

On his ability to do well with big stack of chips, Brandon agreed that he fairly tends to do it better with big stack and happens to know what to do with them. He also said that this is one of the reasons why he isn’t much happy with his play today, as at one point he was in a good position in leader-board with $3.8millions, but he still lost around a million in his today’s play. The position where he dropped from his $3.8 millions to current $2.2millions was when his A-K faced opponents kings, which did not work well for him.

When asked for his views on the level of play in WSOP Main event 2008 as compared to previous years, Brandon said he finds lot of amateurs in 2008 especially in WSOP. While he still finds skilled and better players in WPT.

Before ending his interview, Brandon Cantu admitted that he has no strategy for tomorrow and has no idea whom is he going to face, and that all he knows is to play better.

Mark Ketteringham emerges as the lead on $10,000 NLHE Championship Day 5

12th July 2008
$10,000 NLHE Championship Day 5

$10,000 NLHE Championship Day 5 of WSOP 2008 witnessed battle for lead, as it moved from Jeremy Joseph to Mark Ketteringham. Joseph started the day by staying at the top for most of the day against 189 players, moving with him into the WSOP championship, but by the end of the day the leadership moved over to Mark. With Mark emerging as the lead at the end of the day, he is now at top against 79 players heading in the final.

With the battle for lead, the second position is tightly held by Nikolay Losev, who overtook Joseph and is now next to Mark on the leader-board. This Russian poker player was found winning Bellagio Cup III $5,000 NLHE event, as he took a break from Main event last week.

Only big poker name among the players on the field after the elimination of Johnny Chan was Phill Hellmuth, who will not be a part of World Series of Poker Championship 2008 on the Day-6. In spite of surviving the Day-5 of the championship, Phil will be spending his time sitting out the first orbit because of being penalized for rebuking poker player Cristian Dragomir.

The first elimination of the day came in form of George Ramhe, as he pushed A-5 against A-Q of his opponent Greg Debora. The move ended the day for George at the 189th position in the championship. Another unfortunate player was Peter Traply whose day ended on the first hand, as his hand of pocket queens faced pocket kings of opponent Darren Grant. With the unlucky convention against a big hand, Peter got eliminated at the 188th position for the championship.

Ben Roberts earned a sixth place in WSOP championship in year 1998, but this year this UK player had to reconcile himself with a 178th position. Ben added to the list of unfortunate players eliminated from the series of Day-5, as his pockets kings faced A-Q from opponent Scott Montgomery. Similarly, the board also did not help Lou Esposito and made him exit at 172 position, when his A-J faced pocket queens of opponent Shawn Sheikhan, who later got eliminated at 105th position.

Two big WSOP names and also bracelet winners who lost their go in this WSOP 2008 championship were Jon Friedberg and Allen Cunningham, both the players ended up with 148th and 117th position respectively.

While the players for Day-5 were promised payday worth $38,600 and the chip count for the day was 760,000, there were still players found struggling with short stack. Some of the noted names to face Day-6 include Victor Ramdin, Phil Hellmuth, Phi Nguyen, David Rheem, Mike Matusow, Brandon Cantu, Kido Pham, and Matt Matros. Day-6 is expected to begin with $77,200.

Top ten lead players at the end of the Day-5 $10,000 NLHE Championship WSOP 2008 are Mark Ketteringham (5,800,000), Nikolay Losev (4,058,000), Albert Kim (3,734,000), Tiffany Michelle (3,438,000), Dennis Phillips (3,436,000), Aaron Gordon (3,369,000), Jamal Kunbuz (3,327,000), Terry Lade (3,225,000), Jeremy Joseph (3,100,000) and Alfredo Fernandez (3,053,000).

Only woman left in the series, Tiffany Michelle speaks of her WSOP experience

Tiffany Michelle is the only female poker player left in World Series of Poker 2008, with good amount of chips on her side. She recalls her journey from playing poker as a young girl with her family and now playing poker in big tournaments. During the dinner break of Day- 6 of the championship, Tiffany Michelle spoke to Casinosdiary.com about her experience of poker and WSOP.

Casinosdiary.com asked Tiffany on her poker journey, so far. Tiffany reveled that she has always been a competitive kind of person since her childhood and used to love playing poker with her grandfather and brother. She also said that often she used to play poker using money and chips, when her mother was not around. Tiffany then shifted from casual and friendly poker to Hollywood cash game, where she played for a year. She admitted that that was the phase when she actually learnt poker and started playing it with conviction. In year 2006 she worked as a reporter on Sirius Satellite Radio for coverage of Bluff and then she started working as a camera hostess, traveling as well as playing poker sideways.

Tiffany Michelle is still moving on in the series with around seven millions chip on her side, so far, and is satisfied and pleased with the number.

When asked if reaching to this point was an easy task or a difficult one, Tiffany said that sometimes it was easy and sometimes was little too hard. She also said that a bad day 2 and the first four days were less than average and right now she is in an easy zone. She also admitted that the hard part was her patience and control over things, while the easy part has been the not so good level of players around.

On having a strategy, Tiffany cleared that she never plays with a plan and plays with just an aim of doing well.

On being the a woman candidate for the Main event and having a chance of being the only female player to win a World Series of Poker Main event, she agreed that it would a great thing if she wins the event. Tiffany also admits that a win would be right for boosting poker business more with the entire internet thing going around. She said that seeing women do better is what poker needs and she is planning to do that.

About the amount of money in her side and the winning, Tiffany said that right now she has $190,000 and is waiting to see how far she can go. She also said that after the series she goes back to LA for her movie, which gets postponed all the time due to her deep gaming and is happy that her director is a poker kind of guy too.
Before heading back to her table, Tiffany Michelle admitted that hitting a tournament is all that she ever wanted to do.