Hellmuth breaks down Main Event final table

[clevfan]

Hellmuth breaks down Main Event final table

By Case Keefer
LAS VEGAS SUN
Friday, Nov. 6, 2009

A number of business ventures have brought poker pro Phil Hellmuth to Las Vegas for the week.

Hellmuth is promoting his new book, "Deal Me In," with a signing at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Summerlin Barnes & Noble. He’s also coaching World Series of Poker Main Event final table participant Jeff Shulman.

“Even if I wasn’t,” Hellmuth said, “I wouldn’t miss this.”

Hellmuth said he was more interested with this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event final table -- which begins play at noon Saturday at the Penn & Teller Theater in the Rio -- than any in recent years.

Like most poker fans, Hellmuth’s intrigue starts with Phil Ivey. Hellmuth, who has won a record 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, has even bestowed his own nickname upon Ivey — "Triple Threat."

“The reason I’m calling him Triple Threat is because he’s one of the biggest winners in online poker games, one of the biggest winners in real-world poker games and he’s a great tournament player,” Hellmuth said.

Hellmuth said he spoke with Ivey, who enters seventh in chips with 9.7 million, earlier in the week and that he accepted his new moniker with a laugh.

At 33 years old, Ivey has already won seven World Series of Poker bracelets and is widely considered the best player in the world.

If Ivey pulls off a world championship with a short stack, it would all but confirm his status.

“Don’t misquote me, I’m not saying he’s the greatest, but he’s phenomenal. He seems to be at the top,” Hellmuth said. “But he’s never won a hold ’em tournament. If he wants to take me down from the top of hold ’em tournaments, he’s going to have to fight.”

Hellmuth does not expect Ivey to win the bracelet. Of course, Hellmuth predicted that Shulman would beat out the remaining eight.

Hellmuth said his coaching sessions with Shulman went even better than expected. Hellmuth brought in former Major League Baseball pitcher and current poker pro Orel Hershiser and poker pro Barry Greenstein to assist in his coaching of Shulman.

Hellmuth said there was no doubt Shulman was better prepared than every other player at the table.

“I felt like he was the favorite anyway,” Hellmuth said. “But now I feel like he is the strong favorite.”

Shulman is fourth in chips, behind Darvin Moon, Eric Buchman and Steven Begleiter. Although Hellmuth is infamous for criticizing players and their style of play, he had nothing negative to say about the top three.

“The play looked pretty reasonable,” Hellmuth said. “I didn’t see any horrible plays.”

Moon is a tougher critic on himself than Hellmuth. Throughout the tournament, Moon said he was one of the worst 100 players in the field of 6,500.

Moon credited getting amazing cards for his run through the Main Event. Hellmuth, who referred to Moon as a "folk hero," disagreed.

“He’s not one of the worst players, that’s for sure,” Hellmuth said. “He had the patience to wait for strong hands and then he played them. There’s probably 300 people who had as good as luck as Darvin did and blew themselves out by playing stupid.”

But Hellmuth said he thinks neither Moon nor Ivey is ready for Shulman. Hellmuth even promised a few surprises from Shulman.

Hellmuth said he taught Shulman a few new tactics that would become the talk of the poker world. Combine that with Shulman’s already solid play and Hellmuth sounds convinced that his pupil is about to make history.

“He understands how to play and win,” Hellmuth said. “This is a guy with a whole lot of experience. I like his chances.”

[littleogre]

The facts are all the other players at the table are worse then ivey. It is nearly impossible to cap who will win though. At this point it is a 9 man sng with staggered chip counts. If i bet it at all i will likely bet 2-3 people. So long as i am guaranteed a profit if 1 of my horses wins. I usually cap these things backwards though. Meaning the first thing i do is eliminate what i see as dead money. I see 1 weak spot at the table and it isn't moon. It's the donkey who cold called over 1/4 of his chips with J9.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Never liked Ivey. have to believe he's a great fade here.

[Dell Dude]

if ivey doubles up early, he wins.

[Hartley]

Worth betting on the exchange at 6/1. If he gets off to a fast start like Yang did last year his odds will plummet and without question he can intimidate many of them early on as Yang did.

[Crony]

Disagree. Think you are burning money at 6/1 and plan on taking the no laying 8/1 or 9/1 against. His stack is too small. Short Stack poker takes away a lot of Ivey's edge.

[Eddylove]

How do you not bet the guy who is 10-1 when there are only 9 people at the table? Poker lets face it at those high blinds really comes down to luck. Moneymaker, Varkoni, Chang, Hachem. I mean those guys will never win again probably. I will take a guy who is 3rd in chips at 10-1 all day.

[St Paddy]

Shulman 7.5
Bergleiter 7

Only two players with any sort of value. Ivey's odds are way too short and I don't see Moon making it to the final 3. Absolutley can't see him winning heads up unless he has a massive chip lead.

[James Trout]

Bleurgh. Have a horrible feeling that the Bear Sternes guy Steven Begleiter's going to win.

New tricks from Jeff Shulman!? It's poker not MMA!

[St Paddy]

Buchman just won a huge pot. All in with KK vs AA and he hit quad K's. He is now up there with Moon around 50mil. I like Buchmans chances now. Ivey has played only a small number of hands.

[Fuzzyxlogikk]

paddy where can I follow this?

[Crony]

Live Reporting | 2009 WSOP Main Event - The Final Table | November Nine Final Table | PokerNews

[Fuzzyxlogikk]

thanks!!!

[St Paddy]

If you go to Bluff Magazine you can listen to an audio stream Its not bad i got it going in the back ground along with the chip counts and hand replayer. Crony's link is great for hand analysis. Here are the links.

Live reporting | Final Table Live | November Nine Final Table | PokerNews

Bluff Magazine - Poker Magazine, News, Rankings and Results

[Total Square]

surprised they didnt milk a ppv

[St Paddy]

Wow thats all i can say... wow.

[Total Square]

the broker has balls

[Total Square]

now in the lead damd

[Total Square]

Originally Posted by Total Square

now in the lead damd

nope