The Rail: Episode 12

Pete and Ed discuss the current state of poker on television, the poker tours, and online poker personalities, and marketing poker.



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The Rail: Episode 11 November Nine Breakdown

This week the guys break down the November Nine for this years WSOP Main Event. Then they discuss the new format for the WSOP Circuit Events, whether Phil Ivey can pass Phil Hellmuth in bracelets over the next five years, and the Poker Hall of Fame.

The Rail with ESPN's Gary Wise

ESPN's Gary Wise joins Pete and Ed on The Rail to discuss the Main Event, the amazing story of Alexander Kostritsyn, Phil Ivey, the Tournament of Champions, LeBron James, and bunch of other random topics including Rocky IV.



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The Rail: Episode 9 Main Event Coverage

The guys breakdown the latest happenings in the WSOP Main Event by going over Jason Mercier's bust out hand, discussing the chip leaders, Vitaly Lunkin's deep run, who they'd like to see at the November Nine, and more.



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The Rail: Episode 8

Pete and Ed recap the Tournament of Champions, discuss the Main Event, Peter Eastgate retiring from poker, the Player of the Year race and more in the latest podcast.



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The Rail with Case Keefer of the Las Vegas Sun

Pete and Ed are joined by Case Keefer of the Las Vegas Sun reporting from the Rio at the World Series Of Poker.

The guys discuss Phil Ivey's bracelet win, Gavin Smith winning his first bracelet, the Player of the Year Race, the Tournament of Champions and more.



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The Rail with Jon Friedberg

The guys are back this week joined by WSOP bracelet winner Jon Friedberg. Topics of discussion include Jon's new poker show Under The Gun, this years WSOP, who's better between online and live players, and who the most underrated and overrated players in poker are.

Also on the show Pete and Ed talk about the lineup for the Tournament of Champions.



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WSOP Power Rankings 6/21/10

1. Michael Mizrachi - Another deep run keeps the Grinder on top.

2. John Juanda - Four cashes and four final tables with a chance to win the 3k HORSE.

3. Men Nguyen +7 - The most controversial player on the list finished runner-up in the 5k No-Limit Holdem event.

4. David Baker - Baker is a cash machine. Not only that he is final tabling everything.

5. Dan Heimiller -2 - Heimiller just continues to go deep in every tournament he plays.

6. James Dempsey *NEW - Currently tied for the lead in the Player of the Year race.

7. Jeffrey Papola *NEW - A runner-up finish and his first bracelet in the last week... not too shabby.

8. Vladimir Shchemelev -3 - Shchemelev cooled off this past week, but still has three cashes, and three final tables.

9. Eric Buchman -3 - Buchman has three cashes to go with his bracelet.

10. David Chiu *NEW - Three final tables lands Chiu in the top 10.

Pro-Rated

My apologies for the lateness of this post.

But let’s be honest. Would you have missed this if you never saw it?

Think about it. I haven’t.

I did tease this though on an episode of The Rail, so here it is, the question that will continue to grow as we move closer to our November 9.

Does a pro need to win the Main Event?

Now, the question is not do we want a pro to win poker’s biggest prize. I don’t know anyone that was rooting against Ivey last year, and excitement built to a fever pitch with anticipation.

But honestly, is it better for the game if a pro wins?

I’m not going to argue that it would make things worse, but I certainly don’t think that poker would have been leaps and bounds better had Ivey won.

In the inner circles, it would have solidified Ivey’s place as maybe the best of all time as he would have collected on dozens of bracelet bets.

But the general public would not have made a seismic shift towards playing poker. Ivey would not have become most likely this huge mainstream celebrity that poker really needs.

Do ratings soar this year if he does? Meh, probably not. Are fields juicier this year? I wouldn’t think so.

In short, we would pretty much be exactly where we are right now.

Of course, I definitely think there would have been a problem had a complete amateur won. We don’t need another Jamie Gold or Jerry Yang winning in the face of all the Senate hearings going on to give them even more ammo and prevent poker from ever becoming legal in any form in this country.

So while it would be a nice story worth rooting for, I just don’t see the need for a well-known pro to win the Main Event.

Maybe in time, maybe even this year, a pro will win, and we can revisit this discussion as more than a hypothetical. But for now, all we have is conjecture, and I think that poker can survive just fine on its own without it.

Now let’s go DN!!!

WSOP Power Rankings 6/14/10

1. Michael Mizrachi - Winning the most prestigious tournament of the summer so far and one other final table keeps the Grinder on top.

2. John Juanda *NEW - Three final tables already for Juanda. All in different games.

3. Dan Heimiller *NEW - One of the more underrated pros around. He just keeps putting up results and currently has more cashes at this World Series (4) than anyone else.

4. David Baker *NEW - Baker claimed his first career WSOP bracelet this week and already has two final tables and three cashes.

5. Vladimir Shchemelev +2 - Three cashes, three final tables for the Russian.

6. Eric Buchman *NEW - The November Niner captured his first bracelet this past week, and has three cashes on the series.

7. Tom Dwan +2 - A runner-up finish and going strong in Event #24. No one is more motivated than Durrrr.

8. Eric Baldwin -5 - A deep run in the first 1k event and now a deep run in Event #25.

9. Matt Matros *NEW - A bracelet win and two final tables.

10. Men Nguyen -5 - Men won the 10k Stud Championship and has one other cash.

WSOP Player of the Year Front Runner: Vladimir Shchemelev

We're about a quarter way through the 2010 World Series of the Poker and the current front runner for the Player of the Year is Vladimir Shchemelev? Who is this guy? It's a great question. He has already been to three final tables at this years World Series, including a 2nd place finish in the 50k Player's Championship.

Prior to this years WSOP Shchemelev only had two career cashes at the World Series, both in 2007. One of the impressive things about Shchemelev, who hails from Russia is his success in all the games. He had the runner-up finish in the Players Championship, which was all no-limit holdem at the final table, and two 7th place finishes coming in the 10k Seven Card Stud Championship, and the 10k 8 or Better Championship.

This run for the Player of the Year is eerily similar to Ville Wahlbeck's in last years WSOP. Wahlbeck made three final tables last year including a victory and six cashes. He finished second overall to Jeff Lisandro. With three final tables already to Shchemelev's credit he currently leads the Player of the Year race.

We may not know much about Shcheemelev now, but with over a month still left in the World Series we should be hearing much more from this high-stakes Russian.

The Rail: Episode 5 - WSOP Week In Review

Pete and Ed discuss Tom Dwan's 2nd place finish in the 1.5k No Limit Event, the final exemption for the Tournament of Champions, and more in this week's WSOP recap.



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WSOP Power Rankings 6/7/10

The formula for the second batch of power rankings includes,

1. This years WSOP
2. Last years WSOP
3. Recent success
4. Likelihood to play many events
5. All-time Success

Next weeks formula will only include this years WSOP.

1. Michael Mizrachi *NEW - The Grinder won the 50k Player's Championship and final tabled the 10k Stud Championship.

2. Phil Hellmuth +4 - Watch out WSOP, it looks like the poker brat is back. After a 15th place performance in a 2,300 player field Hellmuth looks motivated to capture #12.

3. Eric Baldwin +2 - A deep run in the largest field of the WSOP so far.

4. Praz Bansi *NEW -Final tabled WSOP Europe and now takes down his second career bracelet in a field of 2,000+.

5. Men "The Master" Nguyen *NEW - The Master won his 7th career WSOP bracelet in the 10k Stud Championship.

6. Daniel Alaei +3 -Final tabled the 50k Player's Championship and is on the hunt for another bracelet.

7. Vladimir Schmelev *NEW - This years Ville Wahlbeck?

8. Phil Ivey -7 -Quiet start so far for Mr. Ivey, but he is doing well in the 10k Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship.

9. Simon Watt *NEW - If you are the one that stops Tom Dwan from winning millions in bracelet bets you deserve to be on the list.

10. Tom Dwan *NEW - 2nd place in a 2,000+ player field. Think he is motivated?

Dropped From Rankings

- Jason Mercier
- Jeff Lisandro
- Daniel Negreanu
- Sorel Mizzi
- Vitaly Lunkin
- Scott Clements

The Rail with Case Keefer

Pete and Ed chat with Case Keefer of the Las Vegas Sun about the 50k Player's Championship and other happenings at the World Series of Poker.

Then the guys discuss Jeffrey Pollack's new job.



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The Rail: Episode 3 - WSOP Breakdown

The guys break down the first fews days of the WSOP including the 50k Players Championship, 1k No Limit Holdem, 1.5k Omaha Hi-Lo Split-8 or better, and the Casino Employees Event.

They also discuss Tom Dwan's chances of winning a bracelet and Phil Hellmuth's appearance in Ludacris' new video.



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The Rail with Seth Palansky

The guys talk with Seth Palansky, Director of Communications for the World Series of Poker regarding the Tournament of Champions, final table streams at the WSOP, the future of the World Series at the Rio, and changes at this years WSOP.

Then Pete and Ed preview the upcoming series with their predictions.



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The WSOP Bracelet: Is This the Year?

Every year before the WSOP begins the question is asked, will this be the year (insert prolific player) finally wins a bracelet? Here are 10 of the top players looking to win their first bracelet this year.

Tom "Durrrr" Dwan - Durrrr has dominated the high stakes cash games scene. He has not had a chance to dominate the tournament scene because he has not played. Dwan only played three events at last summer's WSOP. Rumor has it he is taking bracelet bets for this years series and is motivated to snatch that first gold bracelet.

Patrik Antonius - There is no questioning Antonius' ability. To win a bracelet however you need to play and Antonius played less events than his wife last year.

Gus Hansen - Hansen has been on the best to never win a bracelet list for years. Since taking 2nd at the 2008 WPT Championship Hansen has been fairly quiet on the tournament scene. Being one of the most decorated tournament players of all-time it will be interesting to see if he can finally get that elusive bracelet.

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier - Over the past two years ElKy has become one of the most feared players on the tournament circuit. With numerous titles live and online Grospellier looks to build on his three cash performance from last summer, which included a deep but ultimately disappointing finish in the Main Event.

Michael Mizrachi - In the past five years the Grinder has been one of the top tournament players in the world. He has won two WPT titles and made numerous WPT final tables. Will this be the year he breaks through at the WSOP?

Justin Bonomo - Bonomo had a runner-up finish at the 2008 series and placed 5th in last years 40k No-Limit Holdem. He is taking bracelet bets on whether someone from Panorama Towers (Bonomo, Isaac Haxton, Scott Seiver, Antonio Esfandiari) amongst others will win, which means he'll be playing a ton of events.

Isaac Haxton - Haxton cashed three times in last years World Series including a runner-up finish in the 40k No-Limit Holdem, and 8th place performance in the 10k PLH Championship. Expect him to play a lot of events and reach a final table or two.

Sorel Mizzi - Mizzi has destroyed seemingly every tournament he has played in 2010. With four tournament titles on the year and 10 final table appearances no player in the world is entering the WSOP hotter.

Michael Binger - Most famous for finishing 3rd at the 2006 Main Event, Michael Binger is a cashing machine at the WSOP. Last year Binger had five cashes at the series, four in 2008, eight in 2007, and two final table appearances in 2006 including the Main Event. It is only a matter of time before Binger wins his first bracelet.

Gavin Smith - Smith has over $4 million in career tournament earnings. In the past two years though he has not made much noise. If G-Smith wants to win a bracelet this year he should probably avoid his own advice on flat calling.

Stats, Inc.

Ever since I started watching poker on ESPN, the main thing that has stood out is how the network has attempted to keep a sense of simplicity. These shows were for the casual viewers, they reasoned, who want to see all-ins and drama and Phil Hellmuth shirtless. Not the more analytic crowd interested in learning if a specific play was +EV or not.

But then I noticed during the last two Main Event broadcasts, although it occurred considerably more in 2009, that ESPN started showing the percentage of total chips in play a player had. All of a sudden, the audience could put tangible meaning to what 54,535,000 in chips really meant. If a player had 32 percent of the chips in play with eight players left, they were doing really well.

And just this past week during the NAPT broadcasts for the Mohegan Sun Shootout, ESPN started showing VPIP (Voluntarily Putting money Into the Pot) and aggression factor, giving an online tracker feel to the broadcast.

Which is kind of awesome. But also kind of confusing, from a broadcasting perspective.

ESPN, with the reduction in the amount of tournaments they broadcast, this year doing only three out of almost 60, seems like they only want tables chock full of stars. These tables are then ripe for a casual audience, a trend ESPN seems to have focused hard on in recent years, even showing the Ante Up For Africa tournament last year.

Of course they left out the $25K six-max tournament, with a final table that will be sure to be filled with young pros that would attract an audience that would really appreciate these touches. But we have already beat that message home in Episode 1.

The NAPT though is being broadcast in a much different time slot (Monday from 10p-12a as opposed to the WSOP being typically on Tuesdays from 8p-10p) that the more dedicated poker player will seek out to watch. That is the audience that will appreciate this increased use of statistics, even if the hosts are not the greatest at exploiting them for analysis.


But because casual audiences are not going to immediately grasp these concepts, ESPN looks to be setting up the two entities, the NAPT and WSOP, as vastly different shows. It is kind of a shame, really, because with an expanded NAPT in the coming years, the WSOP and WSOPE, as well as a select few circuit events (Caesar's for starters), ESPN could broadcast a new poker show virtually every week during the year. With different time slots and formats though, continuity is something that will be sorely lacking in the broadcasts over time.

The continuity will never be completely there, obviously, as the NAPT is basically owned by PokerStars and the WSOP is not, but I would like to see the NAPT given the same chance the WSOP has on ESPN with the time slots and advertising.

Maybe some of these touches will trickle down to the World Series broadcasts as people get more comfortable with them. I remember it took until the graphics overall in 2007 to have the pot be displayed at all times. And maybe it is a good thing with the nature of these events to have the NAPT and WSOP be different shows catered to their own audiences. One is mostly about a high stakes bounty shootout, the other is mostly about the biggest live event in the world.

I guess come July we will have our answer if the Series takes some cues from the new Tour on the block. And then we can get focused on the real issue at hand.

Seriously, what does Joanna Krupa do on these NAPT broadcasts??!!

WSOP Power Rankings 5/17/10

With less than two weeks until the beginning of the 2010 World Series of Poker anticipation is building. Each week of the WSOP we'll have a new batch of WSOP Power Rankings with the Top 10 players.

The formula for the first set of rankings includes,

1. Recent success
2. Last years WSOP results
3. Likelihood to play many events
4. All-time success

1. Phil Ivey - The best player in the world and seven time bracelet winner. He won two bracelets last year and made the Main Event Final Table. Expect another big year from Mr. Ivey.

2. Jason Mercier - Mercier has taken the poker world by storm since breaking through at last years World Series. He won a bracelet and also final tabled the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. Coming off a first place performance in the 25k bounty shootout at the 2010 NAPT Mohegan Sun, Mercier looks to ride the momentum into the summer.

3. Jeff Lisandro - Lisandro has won four gold bracelets, three of which came last year. He is a decent bet to win more bracelets this year as he is near unbeatable in stud.

4. Daniel Negreanu - After a solid 2009 WSOP and a runner-up finish in the WSOPE Main Event Negreanu hasn't made much noise with his play. When he's on there is no arguing he is one of the best, but will Negreanu show up ready to play?

5. Eric Baldwin - Basebaldy won his first bracelet last year and has kept the success going. 2009's Player of the Year from Card Player recently finished 2nd in the WPT Championship and is poised to make more noise.

6. Phil Hellmuth - After a disappointing WSOP last summer the poker brat looks to respond this year. Hellmuth got himself a life coach and has already reached two WPT final tables this year. With a fresh new mindset Phil attempts to extend his bracelet record to 12.

7. Sorel Mizzi - The only non bracelet winner on the list, no player has been hotter in 2010 than Mizzi. Since the beginning of the year Mizzi has won four tournaments and made nine final tables. He will play a lot of events and after finishing 2nd in the 5k PLO last summer Mizzi is hungry for his first bracelet. Oh yeah, he just won SCOOP Event #32 for 118k too.

8. Vitaly Lunkin - Vitaly was a pro amongst pros at last summers WSOP. After winning a bracelet in 2008 Lunkin entered 2009's WSOP still a relative unknown. He changed that by winning the 40k No-Limit Holdem, taking 2nd in the 10k PLO Championship, and 4th in the 50k HORSE. Lunkin proved he can play with the big boys.

9. Daniel Alaei - The two-time bracelet winner took down the WPT Five Diamond Classic in December for a cool 1.4 million and recently finished 2nd in the 25k High Roller event at the L.A. Poker Classic. Alaei made two final tables at last years WSOP including a win in the 10k Omaha Hi/Lo Championship.

10. Scott Clements - One of the more underrated players in the game Clements is a two-time bracelet winner and made two final tables last year. He is one of the top Omaha players around. While he's stayed away from the high stakes in 2010 he has already won five tournaments and made ten final tables on the year. Watch for him to quietly perform well once again this summer.

Players to watch out for

- Scott Seiver
- Faraz Jaka
- Andrew Lichtenberger
- Ashton Griffin
- Tom Marchese

The Rail: Episode 1

The Rail is hosted by Pete Francis and Ed Greene who both interned for the World Series of Poker in 2009. Now they bring their insights to The Rail in a poker podcast which covers the latest news in the poker world.

In episode 1 the guys go over the upcoming Tournament of Champions and the rest of the World Series of Poker as well as the NAPT, WPT, and the introduction of Rush Poker from Full Tilt.

Welcome to The Rail

Lots of exciting things on tap here at The Rail! We are currently preparing our first podcast! Our podcasts will include the latest happenings in the poker world and interviews with the poker community. Stay tuned for more updates!