The third installment featured Amarillo Slim Preston, Doyle Brunson and Bobby Baldwin, showing off some of the game's biggest characters and biggest legends. This week's crop of WSOP Champions is just as ripe with the likes of Tom McEvoy, Berry Johnston and Johnny Chan.
Tom McEvoy (1983)
Tom McEvoy has been one of the most stable, solid players on the tournament circuit since he took up poker full time in 1978.
McEvoy worked as an accountant before he got into poker so he obviously never had any trouble with the math behind the game.
McEvoy burst onto the poker scene in 1982 by winning the $1,000 Hold'em event of Amarillo Slim's Superbowl of Poker. He took down $57,600 for his efforts but the best was yet to come.
In 1983 McEvoy won the $1,000 Limit Hold'em event of the WSOP and grabbed his first bracelet. With momentum on his side McEvoy registered for the Main Event and went on to outlast 107 opponents and win the biggest game in town. McEvoy won $540,000 and a piece of poker immortality.
Since then McEvoy added two more WSOP bracelets to his resume ($1,000 Razz in 1986 and $1,500 Limit Omaha in 1992) in addition to cashing in numerous WSOP events. In 2005 he won the Bay 101 Shooting Stars of Poker in San Jose when it was still a part of the Professional Poker Tour, which has since collapsed.
McEvoy has always been opposed to smoking and in 1998 he helped organize the first tournament where smoking was not allowed. Since then most major poker tournaments have banned smoking at the tables.
McEvoy also authored or coauthored over a dozen books on poker and remains a pillar of knowledge on the game.
These days McEvoy lives in Las Vegas and is still active on the circuit and works as an ambassador for the game as a member of Team PokerStars Pro. McEvoy also blogs on occasion for PokerListings.com and you can read his articles by clicking here.
Berry Johnston (1986)
Berry Johnston is a poker veteran in nearly every way possible. His first WSOP bracelet came in 1983 (the same year McEvoy won the Main Event) and he added a bracelet of the Main Event variety in 1986.
Time has not slowed Johnston as his WSOP are spread over many years. He won his third WSOP bracelet in 1990 in the $2,500 Limit Hold'em, his fourth in the 1995 $1,500 Limit Omaha event and finally won his fifth bracelet in the 2001 $1,500 Razz event.
Johnston has gone onto accumulate a total of over 26 final tables in the WSOP and 52 money finishes. The record Johnston is most well-known for, however, is cashing in the Main Event a total of 10 times, which is more than any other player.
Away from the tables Johnston is known as a devoted family man who is a gentleman at all times.
In 2004 Johnston was inducted into the poker hall of fame where he joins some of the game's most colorful and successful players.
Johnston is still a regular on the poker tour and is also a pro with Full Tilt Poker. Johnston can be found on the site playing as "Berry Johnston."
Most recently Johnston went deep in the 2007 Main Event and managed to finish 113th for $58,570.
Johnny Chan (1987, 1988)
Johnny "The Orient Express" Chan is one of the most recognizable players in the poker industry and if his astounding accomplishments in the poker world weren't enough he also had a cameo in poker flick Rounders.
When it comes to the number of sheer bracelets accumulated there are three players that rise above the rest - Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan. Chan and Brunson both have 10 while Hellmuth pulled ahead with his eleventh bracelet in 2007.
Although Chan has been making money in the poker world for years it was the 1987, 1988 and 1989 WSOP Main Events that turn The Orient Express into a household name.
Incredibly Chan won both the '87 and '88 Main Events and if it wasn't for Hellmuth he would have won the '89 one as well. The fields are so large in the modern Main Event it's unlikely that anyone will ever win back-to-back titles, let alone three in a row.
Since his stunning back-to-back Main Event victories Chan has been immersed in the poker world. He continued to have success at the World Championship and returned to the final table in 1992 Main Event where he finished seventh.
After 1988 Chan would go on to win seven more bracelets, the most recent coming at the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em in 2005. It was during that year that Chan became the first player to win 10 bracelets, although Brunson would quickly catch him in 2006 and Hellmuth would eclipse that record in 2007.
Chan is still very active on the poker circuit and is invited to poker TV shows like High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark and the NBC National Heads-up Poker Challenge on a regular basis. Chan has the unique distinction of having the most victories at Poker After Dark.
As of 2008 Chan's live tournament winnings exceed $6.5 million. He lives in Las Vegas, has six children and is a consultant for various casinos and game makers. In 2007 Chan launched his own online poker room at Chanpoker.com.
Chan was inducted into the poker hall of fame in 2002 and continues to be a force in the poker world.
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Stay with us next week as we bring you three more WSOP champions and take a closer look at what they've been up to since they won the big dance.
Related Articles:
- WSOP Champions: Where Are They Now, Part 3
- WSOP Champions: Where Are They Now, Part 2
- WSOP Champions: Where Are They Now, Part 1
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Hachem nearly gets in fight at EPT Grand Final
Former World Series of Poker main event champion Joe Hachem is nicknamed “Salty” for a reason, apparently. With 82 players left in the European Poker Tour’s Grand Final, Hachem nearly got into fisticuffs with a player named Woody Deck. At the time, players were two away ��...full article
Former World Series of Poker main event champion Joe Hachem is nicknamed “Salty” for a reason, apparently.
With 82 players left in the European Poker Tour’s Grand Final, Hachem nearly got into fisticuffs with a player named Woody Deck. At the time, players were two away from the money bubble.
Here’s what happened, according to pokerkingblog.com:
Joe Hachem was involved in a hand with Peter Traply. On a board of A-6-J-A-3, Hachem bet out 80,000 and Traply called, showing A-10. Hachem tapped the table, said “nice call”, and mucked his hand. This is where things got heated.
Woody Deck, who was not involved in the hand, asked if he could see Hachem’s cards. Hachem objected, saying that he didn’t have to show because the winning hand had already been shown. The dealer agreed, and mucked Hachem’s cards. Deck, according to Pokernews, then asked Hachem if he was trying to angle shoot, and said “Don’t be an asshole.”
A war of words ensued and things escalated. Play even stopped at other tables to watch the goings-on. But no punches were thrown and order was restored.
We’ll have results of the EPT when the event concludes.
WPT Ladies Championship down to final table
Leading the pack into the final table will be Vanessa Selbst. With $182,200 in chips, Selbst has a considerable lead over the pack, with her nearest competitor being Nancy Todd Tyner with $107,400 in chips.
Selbst built up her lead steadily through two days of play in the championship. She was the chip leader after Day 1 as the playing field made its way down to the top 10 players by the end of the day.
Some of the poker pro casualties in Day 1 included Kathy Liebert, Jennifer Tilly, Evelyn Ng, JJ Liu, Shirley Williams, Anjela Brunson, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Lily Mizrachi, Sabyl Cohen and Maureen Feduniak.
In Day 2, Karina Jett, Erica Schoenberg, Jennifer Carson and Emeline Boich hit the bricks to leave the following ladies at the final table:
- Seat 1: Nancy Todd Tyner - $107,400
- Seat 2: Janice Kim - $32,900
- Seat 3: Cindy Kerslake - $16,400
- Seat 4: Vanessa Selbst - $182,200
- Seat 5: Donna Varlotto - $68,600
- Seat 6: Van Nguyen - $42,300
Selbst earned her spot in the WPT Ladies Championship by winning the WPT Ladies tournament at the Commerce Casino. She said during a WPT interview that she didn't consider anyone in particular a threat at the final table, but it was the most aggressive players who made the final table so it won't be an easy win.
#img: van-nguyen_17747.jpg: left: Nguyen makes another final table.#
Perhaps the most threatening of Selbst's opponents at the final table will be Van Nguyen. She built herself back up from being the short stack while 10-handed, and she already has a WPT win under her belt after taking down the Celebrity Invitational.
The final table will take place April 25, the day before the WPT World Championship final table, and be taped for future television broadcast.
The WPT World Championship will start Saturday at the Bellagio. Selbst confirmed she plans to buy into that event as well. Men "The Master" Nguyen is also hoping to duplicate his wife's success in the Ladies Championship with a win of his own in the World.
Stay tuned to PokerListings.com for live updates, reports and more in the Live Tournaments section when the event kicks off.
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Stock prices tumble for Vegas casinos
Tuesday was a bad day for the major Las Vegas casinos, as many of their stock prices took big hits. The stock losses came a day after MGM Mirage said it was going to be laying off more than 400 workers. According to a story at majorwager.com, ��...full article
Tuesday was a bad day for the major Las Vegas casinos, as many of their stock prices took big hits.
The stock losses came a day after MGM Mirage said it was going to be laying off more than 400 workers.
According to a story at majorwager.com, printed in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Shares of MGM Mirage, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, closed at $49.58, down $2.24, or 4.32 percent. MGM Mirage was trading at $100.50 in October. Other casino operators also fell in value during trading Tuesday.
Shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. fell $4.97 to close at $69.05 on the New York Stock Exchange, off 6.71 percent. In October, Las Vegas Sands hit a 52-week high of $148.76. Shares of Wynn Resorts Ltd., traded on the Nasdaq National Market, fell $2.63 to close at $98.06, down 2.61 percent. Wynn reached a high of $176.13 in October.
Revenues have been down in the last quarter across the Las Vegas Strip.
Benyamine and ICallSoWhat coin-flip for $169,000
But first, let's investigate the nature of Omaha and compare it with Texas Hold'em.
In Hold'em, two pair on the flop is usually a straightforward hand to play unless the board consists of three suited/consecutive cards. There aren't many situations where you can possibly lay it down. If your opponent has an unfortunate set, it's just bad luck.
In Omaha, on the other hand, two pair is one of the toughest hands to play. If the pot is raised, re-raised, and you push all-in on the flop, one of two following situations is likely to occur.
- Your opponent has a draw, and depending on the strength of it, you'll be somewhere between 10% ahead and a slight underdog.
- Your opponent has a set and you're a big underdog.
Consequently, you rarely want to push all-in on the flop with a bare two pair - at least when the stacks are deep and you know that your opponent wouldn't risk his stack with a speculative holding.
But in Omaha, you can have additional outs to your two pair, which makes the hand a lot more valuable. The closer to the nut draw your extra outs are, the better your hand becomes. And even if your opponent has a better draw, your hand might block a few of his outs, which improves the chance of the two pair holding up.
This is exactly what happened in a hand between ICallSoWhat and David Benyamine at Full Tilt yesterday.
On the flop, ICallSoWhat held top two plus a flush draw and David Benyamine had only king high, combined with a truckload of outs though. And since Benyamine had the better flush draw, he was actually ahead when the money went in.
Full Tilt Poker Game #6059198672 TABLE : Eginton (6 max) $200/$400 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - Wed Apr 16th 2008 - 3:26pm ET
Table Setup
Seat 2: ICallSoWhat ($84,396.50)
Seat 6: David Benyamine ($129,168)
David Benyamine posts the small blind of $200
ICallSoWhat posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #6
Preflop
David Benyamine raises to $1,200
ICallSoWhat calls $800
Flop #Ac-#3c-#Ts
ICallSoWhat checks
David Benyamine bets $1,200
ICallSoWhat raises to $4,800
David Benyamine raises to $16,800
ICallSoWhat raises to $52,800
David Benyamine raises to $127,968, and is all in
ICallSoWhat calls $30,396.50, and is all in
David Benyamine shows #Qd-#9c-#Kc-#Jd
ICallSoWhat shows #9d-#As-#Tc-#7c
Uncalled bet of $44,771.50 returned to David Benyamine
Turn #Ac-#3c-#Ts-#5h
River #Ac-#3c-#Ts-#5h-#3h
David Benyamine shows a pair of Threes
ICallSoWhat shows two pair, Aces and Tens
ICallSoWhat wins the pot ($168,792.50) with two pair, Aces and Tens
Summary
Total pot $168,793 | Rake $0.50
Board: #Ac-#3c-#Ts-#5h-#3h
Seat 2: ICallSoWhat (big blind) showed #9d-#As-#Tc-#7c and won ($168,792.50) with two pair, Aces and Tens
Seat 6: David Benyamine (small blind) showed #Qd-#9c-#Kc-#Jd and lost with a pair of Threes
For more big hands from this session, and more of the biggest pots won over the last day, week, month and year, jump to the MarketPulse section.
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UIGEA hearing opens criticism floodgates
The hearing was unique in that voices of parties with a direct interest in online gambling were joined by a chorus of protests from those who would become UIGEA's collateral damage.
Representatives from various industries who would be affected by the proposed regulations told Congress that implementation of UIGEA is impractical and intrusive, both for everyday citizens and for the institutions with whom they conduct business.
Wayne Abernathy, American Bankers Association vice president for financial institutions policy and regulatory affairs, summed up the situation when he described the government's proposed UIGEA regulations as "an unprecedented delegation of governmental responsibility with no prospect of practical success in exchange for the burden it imposes."
In a press release following the hearing, Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative spokesman Jeffrey Sandman noted that "U.S. banks and credit card companies, along with every other type of U.S. company involved in payment systems, would be forced spend substantial resources to force compliance with a ban on Internet gambling that can be easily circumvented by anyone in the U.S. that wants to continue to gamble online."
A more philosophical underpinning to UIGEA protest was added by Edward Leyden of iMEGA, the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association, in the opening of his testimony. He described the Internet as "an indispensable engine for economic prosperity and social justice," and proposed that "the inalienable rights that each of us holds under the Constitution to freedom of privacy, speech, expression, and conduct are not lessened in any way when we are using the Internet."
In a recent interview with PokerListings.com, Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas was enthusiastic about what the hearing had accomplished.
"It continued to expose the folly of UIGEA and why it's a completely unworkable statute," said Pappas. "This is not coming from the gaming community. This is the banks, the regulated community, saying 'We don't want to be the policemen for the federal government, nor do we believe the payment system is adequately set up for us to do that."
Stopping the burden in its tracks
More than a few of those who gave testimony during last week's congressional hearing suggested that rather than try to prohibit online gambling, a better solution to handling its potential problems would be to license and regulate the industry through a bill such as the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (IGREA) sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
That sort of legislation, says Pappas, is at the very least 12 to 18 months away from becoming a reality.
"In full candor, I think it's going to be very difficult to pass a bill. We're going to try at every level to do something, but given presidential politics and congressional politics, it's going to be very difficult to move something through," said the PPA director. "Understand this is an election year not only for the presidency but for every member of Congress. Whether it's Internet gaming, immigration reform, or health care, I think we'll see very few bills of substance make their way through Congress this year."
Until then, the best poker players can hope for is to prevent UIGEA's regulations from becoming the law of the land. To that effect, Frank and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) introduced legislation to halt that burden until a more fitting solution can be found. Frank introduced the bipartisan bill, H.R. 5767, on April 10 on behalf of himself and his Republican co-sponsor.
By Congressional standards, the bill is short and sweet: in less than 130 words it renders the UIGEA toothless. Perhaps more importantly, it sets the stage for true public debate over the best way to handle online gaming in America - debate that was missing in 2006 when UIGEA was initially passed.
Changing the debate
While stopping UIGEA is an important step toward legal, regulated online poker in America, it's only the first of many that need to be taken. Concerned citizens who enjoy the game online can influence the debate by making their views known to their representatives in the government. Pappas noted that letter-writing campaigns such as those conducted by the PPA's members have been particularly effective in motivating members of Congress to overturn UIGEA.
"I had a meeting with Rep. Rob Andrews (D-New Jersey), and he said, 'I hear from people on three issues more than any other. I hear from them about immigration, I hear from them about the war in Iraq, and I hear from them about online poker.'"
Such communications between representatives and constituents are, in effect, the anti-UIGEA: conducted out in the open, rather than in the back rooms of Congress, and encouraging debate rather than stifling it.
"We've had three congressional hearings in less than a year. These things don't just happen out of nowhere because one day a member of Congress wakes up and decides it's a good idea to hold a congressional hearing," said Pappas. "It's because he's hearing from his constituents."
In addition to encouraging its members to continue communications with their representatives, PPA also plans to register more voters for this November's elections. With a focus on swing states and key congressional districts, the organization hopes to mobilize as many as 100,000 new voters to make Washington aware that poker players are a "vocal political force."
Whatever the final outcome for online gambling in the US, Pappas thinks that the tone of the debate has definitely shifted.
"People are beginning to recognize that whether I like gambling or don't like gambling, UIGEA is not the right approach," he said. "The right approach is to license and regulate it. I think that is a message that is beginning to resonate on both sides of the aisle."
"That'll be our winning message," he concludes. "It's not a message that you need to be for poker or against poker, it's a message that you need to be for good government."
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