Bags of Dreams

You might have heard something over the last few days about this strange eBay auction in which a seller has been attempting to find someone willing to purchase “FINAL TABLE 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event HEADS UP CHIP BAGS.” That’s right, the lot includes the two big plastic bags in which Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov collected their chips prior to their heads-up duel five years ago.

The seller, a fellow named Scott Neuman, created an elaborate eBay listing that features a couple of pictures of the bags and about a dozen of himself. Also included is the story of how Neuman secured these precious commodities, having bid on the bags himself in an auction for charity conducted by the WSOP following the conclusion of the 2008 Main Event.

Neuman’s auction probably wouldn’t have gotten much attention in the poker world if not for the fact that someone started a thread regarding it over in Two Plus Two. And that person probably wouldn’t have found the auction or started the thread if it weren’t for the fact that Neuman’s listing price for the two ripped open clear plastic bags was just a little higher than one might expect...

$15,000! No shinola.

Alas for Neuman, his auction concluded this morning without a sale. That is to say, he was left holding the bags.

It looks like there were two offers, both declined. It’s been a number of years since I bought or sold anything on eBay and so I’m not up on how things work there these days, but I assume the offers probably came in a bit below the asking price.

But wait... good news! He has relisted them! And still at the same bargain price!

Actually, reading the auction listing more carefully shows that Neuman appears to be attempting to sell the bags as an indirect way of drumming up a kind of backing for his right-on-the-verge-of-finally-breaking-through poker career. Actually, the whole scheme isn’t just indirect, it’s pretty much transparent.

You know, like the bags.

As he explains, he intends to use the $15,000 to buy into unspecified poker tournaments. Again, I’m not up on eBay’s policies at the moment, but I’m guessing offering the bags as the nominal sale item is a kind of work-around to simply asking for money to pay for entry fees.

Additionally, the person forking over the $15K not only gets the bags but the chance at scoring some percentage of Neuman’s winnings from those tourneys, too -- i.e., “a bonus that is completely up to me.” Of course, Neumann can’t specify the amount of that bonus. Nor can he even guarantee there would even be one. Indeed, as he says two times -- the second time using all caps for emphasis -- “I CAN NOT PROMISE I WILL CASH.”

Caveat emptor, then. The bonus isn’t in the bag.

Obviously there’s more to the story of this eccentric entrepreneur, and a few idle searches online make it sound like he’s been up to similar shenanigans for a number of years, with a couple of other weird-seeming sponsorship arrangements among his bag of tricks (and only a few modest results over that period).

Not too interested, really, to discover anything more about this particular character. That is to say, I don’t really care one way or the other what his bag really is.

Have to admit, though, it’s kind of inspired... this idea to try to sell bags full of nothing.

Spoilers! (the 2008 WSOP Main Event final table)

I listened for a good while after the dinner break last night, hearing Darus Suharto’s elimination in sixth place and Scott Montgomery go out in fifth.

That Montgomery elimination was a killer, although he’d put himself in a bad way having shoved with five hands earlier only to get called by Ivan Demidov’s pocket kings. That tumbled Montgomery back down to 7 million or so.

Even so, Montgomery’s elimination hand was a bit more than brutal. He’d pushed with and was called by Peter Eastgate who had pocket sixes. An ace flopped, another turned, but a six popped out on the river. And that after Dennis Phillips had said he’d folded the other six!

Of course, earlier in the day Montgomery had delivered a similar heartbreaker to Craig Marquis to eliminate Marquis in ninth, catching an improbable runner-runner straight to overtake Marquis’ flopped set of sevens. Talk about spoilers!

Scanning through the hands played after I fell asleep, I see a couple of interesting ones but nothing nearly as intriguing as the one from early in the evening -- Hand No. 18 -- when Phillips dropped 12.5 million to Demidov (discussed a bit here).

After Ylon Schwartz went out in fourth (did anyone check to see if he subsequently leaped off the Rio roof?), I’m seeing there was another much smaller confrontation between Phillips and Demidov in which Phillips again had to fold the turn (Hand No. 164). Then, in Hand No. 169, it looks like Phillips made an unfornately-timed push after Eastgate had flopped a set of threes, knocking Phillips out in third place.

Was glad to see Phillips turn it back around yesterday and make the deep run. Chances are good (I think) that while he lost a lot more on that Hand No. 18 than he should have, he probably did fold the second-best hand. But we’ll see on Tuesday!

Meanwhile, we’ve got the Russian and the Dane heads-up tonight. Have to say, I’m not too surprised at any of the finishes, nor at who we have left standing.

There will be a number of hands worth seeing on Tuesday night, even knowing the result ahead of time. With only two hours of programming (which really only adds up to 90 minutes or so), they’ll only be able to show a couple dozen hands, although I think they won’t have a hard time selecting twenty or so from the 169 played yesterday.

However, they may have a much harder time selecting hands from tonight’s battle between Eastgate and Demidov. That’s because ESPN will probably only leave themselves space to show a couple of hands, but heads up could go on much, much longer than that.

Right now, Eastgate has the chip advantage with 79.5 million to Demidov’s 57.7 million. Looks like they are well into Level 37, with blinds of 300,000/600,000 and 75,000 antes. That’s over a million in the middle preflop for every hand, which seems like a lot. But let’s compare the situation to what they had over in London at the WSOPE a month ago.

When heads up began there, John Juanda had 4.42 million and Stanislav Alekhin 2.85 million. The blinds were 20,000/40,000 with 5,000 antes. Even though Harrington’s “M” doesn’t mean as much in heads up, let’s use it as a way of estimating the relative sizes of the chip stacks. In London, Juanda had an M of about 63 when heads up began, while Alekhin’s M was just under 41. They were playing two-hour levels there just like they are at the WSOP Main Event. And Juanda and Alekhin went on for 242 more hands -- about seven more hours.

How do the stacks of Eastgate and Demidov compare, M-wise? Looks like Eastgate’s M is just under 76, while Demidov’s is right around 55 -- i.e., higher than what they had in London. And while anything can happen in heads-up play -- they could get it all in at any moment -- both of these guys strike me as tough competitors who will be more than willing to take their time.

All of which means I surely won’t be following the action tonight, as it will largely take place while I’m counting sheep. First hand is scheduled for 10 p.m. Vegas time (1 a.m. over here on the other coast), meaning that if they follow form there at the Rio, it will probably go off an hour later.

Hell, they may still be playing when I wake up tomorrow morning. And when I do, I will surely head over to PokerNews for their live reports.

2008 WSOP Main Event Final Table Resumes Tomorrow

In just a little over 24 hours they will be gathering over at the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio to resume the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Almost forgot all about it, didn’t you?

As one who regularly follows podcasts, reads forums and blogs, and keeps up with other varieties of poker media, I suppose I’ve become somewhat familiar with the nine players’ personalities over the last 100-plus days. Can’t really claim to have that much knowledge of playing styles beyond the few hands we saw on the ESPN shows. While I was there covering the action up through Day 5 this summer -- and I watched the feature table for a few hours on both Day 6 and Day 7 -- I can’t really claim to have picked up all that much extra information that yr average ESPN viewer wouldn’t already have.

My limited knowledge ain’t gonna stop me, though, from offering a few thoughts about the remaining players here on the eve of the final table.

1. Dennis Phillips (26,295,000) -- The 53-year-old account manager for Broadway Truck Centers in St. Louis will most definitely be easy to root for tomorrow. His humble nature and dedication to charity work has won him a lot of fans during the long lead-up to tomorrow’s final table. He definitely caught some cards during those last two days of play in July -- we all saw him flop a couple of flushes there in the ESPN telecasts. But we also saw him get paid on those hands, and show a willingness to bluff (and catch others’ bluffs), too. I definitely like Phillips’ chances, though a lot depends on the table draw (not to mention how the cards go). In any event, he’s certainly one of about five players who will be seriously gunning for the bracelet and not merely to finish in the top five or six. (Check out my interview with Phillips here.)

2. Ivan Demidov (24,400,000) -- His big chip stack and third-place finish in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event most certainly affords Demidov some extra credibility as a contender tomorrow. Some have mentioned how good it would be for poker should the 27-year-old from Moscow -- or one of the other three non-Americans still alve -- manage to take the bracelet. The fact that he played 242 hands at that WSOPE final table might mean his opponents tomorrow have gained a bit of extra knowledge about how he approaches the endgame, although without knowing hole cards it is hard to estimate the significance of such information. I’d expect Demidov to maintain his healthy chip stack early on, although he has expressed in at least one interview a willingness to flip with a shorter-stack, especially if it is with a more formidable opponent like Rheem.

3. Scott Montgomery (19,690,000) -- We all saw Montgomery luck out a couple of times on ESPN to survive, but so did most of the other nine at some point in their respective journeys. The 26-year-old Canadian finished fifth in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic early in the year. He has a mathematics degree and has done some teaching (in Japan, actually), so has a bit of smarts about him. Also has a winning, self-effacing personality, too, as evidenced on ESPN and on the 10/30/08 episode of the Pocket Fives podcast. Seems willing to take some chances and gamble it up, and so might be a target for the short stacks early on.

4. Peter Eastgate (18,375,000) -- The youngest (aged 22) of the nine, and looks it. Eastgate is the only one of the group I don’t believe I’ve actually listened to being interviewed. On the few hands shown on ESPN telecasts, he appeared to have the sort of bold, aggressive style you’d expect of a young internet-trained player. Being from Denmark, expect a lot more comparisons with Gus Hansen to be thrown around tomorrow, especially if Eastgate goes deep (which I think is very likely). Has an effective, non-expressive poker face, too, which helped him in the hand in which he knocked out Tiffany Michelle. Would not be surprised at all to see Eastgate playing on Monday when they return for heads up.

5. Ylon Schwartz (12,525,000) -- The 38-year-old chess master from Brooklyn was probably the most idiosyncratic-seeming of the nine in interviews, tossing off strange, off-the-wall comments that suggested he either wasn’t affected by the whole delayed-final-table spectacle or was pretending such. When Phil Gordon asked him what his future plans were on The Poker Edge, Schwartz responded with something about jumping off the Rio roof if he didn’t win. (As I wrote about yesterday, Schwartz also has some interesting things to say about how chess compares to poker.) From what I saw on Day 7 when watching from the stands, Schwartz was playing uber-tight in an effort to make the final table -- probably only Kelly Kim was tighter there at the end. While many think he’ll continue in that vein tomorrow and be content to finish in the top five, I’m thinking he could surprise people and play more aggressively early on. Not in a wild Jerry Yang-fashion, but be active enough that he could well accumulate chips and be around to contend at the end.

6. Darus Suharto (12,520,000) -- I heard Suharto interviewed on The Poker Edge about a month back. The 39-year-old Canadian was back at his accounting job and in fact sounded as though his job had a much more prominent place in his life than did poker or even the WSOP. The impression might be misleading, however. Even though Suharto is an amateur who only plays part-time, he has gathered some experience here lately at the EPT London and the North American Poker Championship. Even so, of all the final nine, he seems to me the most likely to sit tight from the beginning tomorrow and just try to survive the first couple of eliminations.

7. David Rheem (10,230,000) -- The Los Angeles pro was easily the most prominent of the nine both on the ESPN shows and elsewhere, thanks both to his earlier poker successes (including one televised final table at this year’s WSOP) and that bit of news about his having had an outstanding arrest warrant. Until Demidov’s deep WSOPE run, the 28-year-old seemed to be a favorite pick among many to win, but with the relatively-shorter starting stack his fate depends heavily on his being fortunate whenever he decides to make that first big gamble tomorrow. I don’t see Rheem being content to sit on his below-average stack very long tomorrow. Indeed, Rheem seems to me the most likely of the remaining players to make a Philip Hilm-like early exit.

8. Craig Marquis (10,210,000) -- The 24-year-old from Arlington, Texas was most conspicuous at the ten-handed table in July, showing an obvious willingness to go busto in his effort to exploit what had been hyped as the biggest bubble in poker tourney history. Seems like a smart, funny guy. Is a prominent contributor over on Two Plus Two where he started a Q&A thread about a month ago titled “Ask a member of the November Nine.” He didn’t answer all of the questions posed there, but did respond to many (perhaps too many, actually). A complete wild card, really, who could flame out early or gather chips and go deep.

9. Kelly Kim (2,620,000) -- The 31-year-old Californian endured a lot of ups and downs during the seven days of play, nearly busting right at the money bubble (and on a few other occasions), then limping to the finish at the very end. Sounds like a savvy tourney player who may well endure into the top six or seven spots, should he manage to double up during the first orbit or two (and then hang on after that).

I’ve established already that I’m pulling for Phillips to take it down, although as I say above I think the table draw has a lot to do with how things will go for him. Thought a little about making predictions, but taking a page from Phillips’ book of humility, I’m gonna refrain other than to say I think the non-Americans are all gonna do well tomorrow.

Unless you plan to keep yr head in the sand until the ESPN “plausibly live” show on Tuesday night, be sure to head over to PokerNews’ live reporting tomorrow to follow all of the action.

WSOPE Final Table Today: A Demidov Double

Can’t say I’ve really followed the World Series of Poker Europe all that closely. I have checked in from time to time over on PokerNews to read some of the live reports, and I’ll certainly be checking in again today to see how that final table of that £10,000 No-Limit Hold’em event goes.

I can’t speak for how things are over on the other side of the pond, but here in America us Yanks are pretty well distracted by a whole heckuva lot of other stuff at the moment. Thus only a tiny percentage of the most ardent poker buffs are even checking in to see who is winning what over in London this week.

One part of the WSOPE story I was curious about from a long ways back was to see how many of the so-called “November Nine” would be making the trip over there. I wrote a post about that subject back in May around the time the WSOPE schedule was first announced. There I speculated that the WSOP Main Event final table hype machine would surely make a point to ship most if not all nine of those guys over to London to get ’em some extra publicity as we ramp up to the final table in November.

Got some inside dope shortly after I posted that, and discovered that when the WSOP made the decision to delay the Main Event final table, they hadn’t even considered that the WSOPE would be coming up in the interval and that there could be some marketing possibilities to be exploited there.

I’ve listened to a few interviews with the November Nine over the last few weeks, and most sounded as though they wished mostly to lay low during these 117 days. Heard both chip leader Dennis Phillips and Darus Suharto over on Phil Gordon’s The Poker Edge, and neither sounded too interested in playing a lot of poker in public during these four months.

Took a few moments yesterday to scan through PokerNews’ chip counts for each of the four WSOPE events to see how many November Niners appear. While not everyone who enters the events gets listed in the chip counts, I’m guessing that all nine of the final tablists -- Dennis Phillips, Ivan Demidov, Scott Montgomery, Peter Eastgate, Ylon Schwartz, Darus Suharto, David Rheem, Craig Marquis, Kelly Kim -- would have been tracked.

So with that disclaimer in mind, here’s what I’m seeing in the counts:

In Event 1, the £1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event, the only November Niner to appear there was Scott Montgomery (currently 3rd place at the WSOP ME). He busted on Day 1b.

In Event 2, the £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. event, Kelly Kim (currently 9th place at the WSOP ME) made it to Day 2, but busted shy of the poundage.

None of those waiting to play the World Series of Poker Main Event final table appear to have registered to play Event 3, the £1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event.

Finally, six of the November Nine are shown playing in Event 4, the £10,000 No-Limit Hold’em event. Day 1a ended with two of them -- Ivan Demidov (2nd, WSOP ME) and Scott Montgomery -- in the top five. Both Peter Eastgate (4th) and Craig Marquis (8th) played that day as well, but neither made it through. Then David Rheem (7th) and Kelly Kim both made it through Day 1b. Of those four, only Ivan Demidov survived to Day 3. He was 14th out of 67 players left entering play on Tuesday.

Demidov had a good Day 3 and ended the day right in the middle of the pack with 24 players left. And he hung on through the day yesterday, too, and sits in 3rd place with nine players remaining, giving him the undeniably impressive distinction of having made the final tables of both WSOP Main Events this year.

So it looks like there wasn’t any special effort to get those guys over there, but then again, WSOP/Harrah’s maintained all along that they weren’t going to make any of those making the final table do anything they didn’t want to.

But with Ivan Demidov still alive, there’s a real opportunity here. Gotta believe WSOP officials, Harrah’s, and ESPN are going to be pulling hard for Demidov to take the sucker down today, as that would certainly spark some extra interest in the ME final table that perhaps isn’t there at present. (Having John Juanda, Scott Fischman, and Daniel Negreanu there ain’t so bad, either.)

Too bad there are no plans (of which I am aware, anyway) to show the WSOPE final table here in the States anytime soon. If somehow they could’ve managed it to air it prior to November 9th, that might’ve added some seriously needed hype to the delayed WSOP ME final table.

In any event, I’ll admit to being a bit more interested in the WSOPE final table that I would’ve been otherwise. Follow along over on PokerNews, starting at 1:00 p.m. London time (that’s 8:00 a.m. Eastern, I believe).