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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