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For those of you who are unaware what the WRGPT is - in a nutshell it is the oldest online email tournament. It predates online software. Standing for World Rec.Gambling Poker Tournament, the WRGPT is in its 18th year. Last year was my first year in the event (I know - late bloomer I am). It was fun and the hardest part was being patient. I am so used to making snap decisions and playing multiple tables at once.

This event is so slow. It can take more than a day to play one hand...and that gives you a lot of time to agonize over a decision. It also gives you a lot of time to think about what to do. The tournament lasts for about nine months to a year. About 1,000 people worldwide enter the event.

There is no money, just bragging rights involved and the competition does get vigorous. It is fun and well, I would urge you to give it a try if you are a poker geek like me.

I will be using the poker handle chickwchips. Hope to "see" you at the tables.

 

 

1. The most crucial skill in willing a multi-table poker tournament is luck. If you join a poker tournament with 200 people you need to win more than your fair share of coin flips to win the entire tournament. Skill and experience can get you far, but luck is essential to win a tournament. A tournament player running bad can play an enormous amount of tournaments without cashing in. The variance in MTT’s is crazy and only a very limited number of players make their living playing tournament poker.

2. If you are already a successful ring game player you will need to adjust your strategy. In ring games you need to accumulate the maximum amount of chips. In tournament poker you need to collect all the chips under a certain timeframe and constantly increasing blinds. That means you must win chips a lot faster than in ring games and therefore play more hands.

3. Chips have relative value. In a standard poker game each dollar is always worth the same, while in tournament poker the chips have different relative value. If you start out with $1000 worth of chips these chips are worth a lot more than the next $1000 chips you are able to win. Since you are unable to buy you way back into the tourney, the last chips you have are always the most valuable.

4. Remember the Gap concept! David Sklansky introduced the Gap Concept with is priceless in tournament poker. The Gap Concept means, that you will need a better hand to play against someone who has opened the betting, than what you need to open with yourself. This basically means that you need a strong hand to call a bet, but only a semi-strong hand to make a bet. This is important to remember when stealing blinds an making moves.

5. Follow the blinds. Play tight in the beginning of a tournament. How tight you should play depends on the structure of the tournament you are playing. When the blinds are low you can sit tight and wait for other players to make mistakes, but when the blinds begin to rise it is time go get in there and gamble.

6. Position. Position is everything in no-limit Texas Holdem. Play tight from early position with a lot of people to act behind you. Play aggressive from late position and try to steal blinds with semi-strong hands.

7. Try to focus on the table you are sitting at. Don’t worry how many players are left at the other tables and how they have distributed the chips amongst them. Focus on your table and try to become the chip leader. You need to win all the chips anyway, so might as well start at your own table and worry about the rest of the opponents later on.

8. Try to read observe your opponents to get an idea of how they play and use this information when making decisions. A correct read on your opponents is a very powerful tool.

9. You need to survive. Remember you often only have one shot. If you move all-in there is no reload button and you will be eliminated from the tournament. One mistake can cost you the tournament.

10. Change gear. To be a successful tournament player you need to be able to know when to play aggressively and when to play tight. A great tournament player use position, reads on players, tournament structure, blind level, and many other factors to determine his actions. Use this information to determine when to play aggressively and when to play tight – if you want to win multi-player tournaments you will need to do both. Tight players do not win poker tournaments, the key to winning is a mix between tight play and loose aggressive play.

These are standard poker tournament tips. It doesn’t matter if you are playing in an online qualifier, satellite event, online tournament or live tournament. The tournament structure might differ but the goal is the same and every one of the above tips applies - even though the player’s skills might differ greatly.
We hope these poker tournament tips will help you in your next online poker tournament

So I like sites such as http://www.pokertube.com.  I think it's fair to say that I've watched 75% of their movies, however I get pissed off when I have to move through different pages to load a movie.  Also on PokerTube I couldn't find thw WSOP Tournament of Champions 2005 and now that I have my own blog I can simply put them one after the other in one page and voila`.

Players in this Tournament :

• Phil Hellmuth Jr.
• Mike Matusow
• Keith Sexton
• Hoyt Corkins
• David Levi
• Tony Bloom
• Steve Dannenmann
• Grant Lang
• Brandon Adams

Here you go, enjoy

Wsop 2005 Tournament of Champions Part 1 of 8

Wsop 2005 Tournament of Champions Part 2 of 8

Wsop 2005 Tournament of Champions Part 3 of 8

Wsop 2005 Tournament of Champions Part 4 of 8

Wsop 2005 Tournament of Champions Part 5 of 8

 

Wsop 2005 Tournament of Champions Part 6 of 8

Wsop 2005 Tournament of Champions Part 7 of 8

Wsop 2005 Tournament of Champions Part 8 of 8

Event #11 was a new one for in this year's WSOP, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout. Essentially, this is a group of sit-and-go's with the winner of each of Round 1's 36 tables moving on to Saturday's Round 2. With a $5,000 buy-in, this event was expected to draw a number of recognizable figures, and it did not disappoint; everywhere you turned was another big name -- there were the three famous Phil's (Hellmuth, Ivey and Laak), along with Chris Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu, Scott Fischman, Jonathan Little, Patrik Antonius, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Tony G, Marco Traniello, Mark Seif, Erik Seidel, John Juanda – and dozens more. The tourney started at half past noon in the Amazon Room with blinds of 100/200 and 360 entrants starting with 10,000 in chips apiece.

Evelyn Ng struck early, sending one of the first players to the rail, just after cards were in the air. A number of well-known pros were also victims of early knockouts, including Little, Justin Bonomo, John Phan, David Ulliott, Dewey Tomko, Ferguson and Ivey. David Benyamine joined them after coming up against a monster hand. With a board showing , Joe Sebok checked from early position and Benyamine went all in with his remaining 5,200 chips. Benyamine showed 5-4 for the straight, but Sebok showed for quads and, before the river fell, Benyamine was gone.

Two hours into play some tables had lost players quickly, including one table down to just three, while all ten players remained on Table 30, including Vanessa Selbst, Erik Seidel, and Victor Ramdin. All ten were also still present at Table 28, with its intimidatingly packed line-up including Mike Matusow, Eugene Todd, Humberto Brenes, Chad Brown, and Max Pescatori. Wherever you looked, each table was more imposing than the next and you had to wonder which sight was scarier, the table hosting Andy Black, David Pham, and Shane Schleger or being at the same table as Alex Kravchenko, David Benyamine and Joe Sebok.

There was some levity – to go along with the tension — in a hand pitting the Poker Brat, Phil Hellmuth, against Toto Leonidas. With a board reading 8-A-J-2-4, Leonidas led out for 2,000. " Jack-four, right, Toto?" asked Hellmuth. "I lay down ace-king," he said, mucking his cards.

John Juanda then piped up. "You didn't have ace-king," he said. "You would stand up, knock your chair over, and say 'Look what I can fold, baby!'" That elicited much laughter from the table, Hellmuth included.

Well into play, the tournament staff announced that the player winning his or her table would receive $16,920 and that the next pay jump would not be until the final table. Just two hours into play, Ryan "sleepy_hippo" Thurlow was guaranteed at least some prize money when he won his table with pocket twos over his opponent's A-J and he will be back tomorrow for Round 2. It took an hour before we had our next table winner when John Monnette's pockets sevens held up against Jeff Norman's suited A-Q.

Shortly after Gavin Smith joked, in reaction to his opponent's huge chip stack, "looks like we're pretty even," he was knocked out and his opponent, Andrey Zaichenko, advanced to the next round. At another table, Lacey Dalton was similarly out-chipped by his opponent as he had 9,000 to Tom Roupe's 91,000. Dalton made the call on the next hand from the small blind/button without seeing his cards. Roupe, noticing Dalton hadn't looked at his cards, raised, and eventually the two got it all in preflop. It turned out Dalton had a hand – pocket nines; but so did Roupe – Big Slick. It was a race Dalton lost when the board rivered a two pair that counterfeited his under pair and Roupe moved on to the semi-final tables.

It took Alex Jacob almost two hours to beat Todd Barlow in heads-up play and move on to the next round. At about the same time, Adam "Roothlus" Levy had his J-J holds up versus his opponent's 7-7 and he too moved on to Round 2. Ariel Schneller spiked a diamond on the river to give himself a winning flush and a ticket to tomorrow's play; while elsewhere Burt Boutin saw his A-J win the race against Bill Jennings' pocket tens for his berth in the semis. Others finding luck on their path to the next round included Michael Gracz, who flopped a straight flush draw but was behind Alex Katz's two pair until he hit the straight on the river.

In fairly rapid succession, Leo Wolpert, Greg Mueller, Rickard Krish and Remy Biechel all moved on to the next round. John Murphy advanced when his made the nut flush on the turn, over Sergey Rybachenko's . Others coming back for tomorrow include Mike Gracz, Burt Boutin, Tony G, Mats Gavatin, Evan McNiff, Isaac Haxton, Jacobo Fernandez and Eric Froehlich. Joe Sebok made it to Day 2 when, already boasting a 4-to-1 chip advantage, he called the all-in of Quinn Do on the flop with middle pair and it held up when Do failed to pair either of his overcards.

Nearly twelve hours after Round One began, and after a fairly length standoff, the final spot in the semi-finals was won by Gregg Turk when his pocket kings held up against Matt Sterling's ace. Round Two will commence tomorrow with blinds of 1,000/2,000 and each of the players starts with 100,000 in chips. The players will compete at one of six tables of six-handed play and each table will play down to a single winner who will then compete on Sunday's six-handed final table. Each of tomorrow's winners will be guaranteed at least $38,070 (sixth-place prize money) and will vie for the top prize of $477,900 along with the priceless WSOP bracelet.

Here is the lineup for Saturday's Round 2:

TABLE 1
Seat # Player:
1 Evan McNiff
2 John Murphy
3 Eugene Katchalov
4 Thomas Roupe
5 Joe Sebok
6 William Palmer

TABLE 2
Seat # Player:
1 Mats Gavatin
2 Pier Ruscalla
3 Christopher Howard
4 Leo Wolpert
5 Maciek Gracz
6 Jacobo Fernandez

TABLE 3
Seat # Player:
1 Isaac Haxton
2 Greg Mueller
3 Burt Boutin
4 Adam Levy
5 Paul Roper
6 Ryan Thurlow

TABLE 4
Seat # Player:
1 Tony G
2 Robert Firestone
3 Sirous Jamshidi
4 Elton Beebe
5 Alex Jacob
6 John Monnette

TABLE 5
Seat # Player:
1 John Juanda
2 Eric Froehlich
3 Andrey Zaichenko
4 Gabriel Costner
5 Timothy West
6 Erik Seidel

TABLE 6
Seat # Player:
1 Andre Remy
2 Gregg Turk
3 William Blanda
4 Phil Tom
5 Richard Kirsch
6 Ariel Schneller

Pokernews.com will provide live reporting on tomorrow's event beginning at 2:00 pm PDT.

Event #10, $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, drew 388 players initially, but only 108 of them returned to the Rio on Day 2 to try for their shot at the final table. Among the players remaining to start Day 2 were Greg Raymer, Howard Lederer, "Miami" John Cernuto, Hoyt Corkins and Todd Brunson. The mixed game was structured so that players had eight hands of Omaha Hi/Lo and then switched to eight hands of stud hi/lo, rather than switching games each level or half-level.

Early eliminations included Bryan Devonshire, Doug "Rico" Carli, Howard Lederer, Men Nguyen, Greg Raymer and Steve Zolotow. Play continued at a quick pace until the invariable tightening up around the bubble, but hand-for-hand play didn't last long before Matt Prescott's elimination put the remaining players in the money. Prescott got all his chips in preflop in Omaha on his last hand and found two callers. Cory Wolnewitz bet the turn and river of the board, and Craig Gray called him all the way down with . Wolnewitz tabled for a straight to the six and a six-low, good enough to scoop the pot and send Prescott to the rail.

Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, Berry Johnston, Allen Cunningham and Barbara Enright all busted shortly after the dinner break, along with Jeff Lisandro, who went to the rail in 19th place. Play slowed down considerably once the event reached the final two tables, with several hours passing before the final table was set. Suddenly, what looked to be a short Day 2 for the remaining players dragged into a marathon.

Claude Cohen, Sam Silverman and Craig "MrCasino" Gray all went to the rail playing stud hi/lo, as did Hoyt Corkins, who busted to James Van Alstyne in 14th place ($10,709). Corkins got it all in with showing, but mucked to Van Alstyne's hidden straight with [] [].

Matt Graham busted in 12th ($15,171) when he got all his chips in on third street in stud hi/lo and found two callers in Brandon Cantu and Greg Pappas. Cantu led out on every street and picked up the side pot with [] []. Cantu's aces up was good against Graham's [] [], and Graham was eliminated. As the night turned into morning, James Van Alstyne exited in 11th place ($15,171), and then players went into lockdown mode on the final-table bubble. With eight seats available at the final table, play became extremely tight, until finally Tad Jurgens busted in 10th place ($19,633) to leave one elimination for the day.

It took almost another hour for the final elimination, but in the end it was Brandon Cantu who bubbled the final. In Omaha Hi/Lo, Cantu raised preflop and was called by "Miami" John Cernuto. Cantu held to Cernuto's . Cernuto flopped the nut flush on the board, and Cantu was drawing thin. The turn and river came , and Cernuto scooped with the nut flush for high and the 6-5-4-3-A low. Cantu picked up $19,633 for his ninth-place finish.

With Cantu's exit, the final table was set, with Farzad Rouhani holding a commanding chip lead over his opponents. In yet another star-studded final table, "Miami" John Cernuto and Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi joined Rouhani at the final table of the $2,500 Omaha/Stud event. The final chip stacks looked like this at the end of a very long Day 2.

Farzad Rouhani 513,000
Greg Pappas 304,000
John Cernuto 285,000
Tom Chambers 235,000
Michael Mizrachi 231,000
John Racener 180,000
Daniel Mowczan 122,000
Yueqi Zhu 87,000

 

Source : PokerNews.com