LA Poker Classic--Final Table

Phil Hellmuth, Woody Moore, Quinn Do, Nam Le, Phil Ivey and Steven x. What do these people have in common? They were all seated at the final table at the Commerce Casino last night. When I found out that I was going to be able to watch Phil and Phil and Nam play poker, I was beside myself with excitement!

Thank goodness, I arrived at the first tape change, and was able to go get to my seat before Phil Helmuth went all-in. He was the first to go. He was jovial, and very pleasant with the audience and the other players--I didn't expect him to be so good-natured--given there was 1.9 million dollars on the line!

Several other pros were in attendance---I recognize their faces, but not their names. I'll have to look them up later.

I didn't know that Phil Ivey has made a WPT table 8 times, and had never won a WPT title before. He has placed 8 - 2, but never first. There was no doubt in my mind that he was going to do it. He was unstoppable! He took Nam Le out with trip 3's, and Nam had gone all-in pre-flop with pocket aces. Ivey called with his pocket 3's. wowowow!

To say that the room went crazy when Phil won is an understatement. He was so focused and serious during the game. And even though he was the chip leader, he played very conservatively and didn't play many hands. He was definitely a great example of patience. Quin had interesting body postures when he was calling, raising and folding. I wonder if he realizes that he changes his body postures when he is playing?

My camera ran out of battery (damn it!) so I won't be posting many pictures of this event. But I will try to post what I can when I get home.

LA Poker Classic--WPT Event

The final table taping for the LA Poker Classic was last night. And it had to be one of the most boooooooooring games (initially) that I have ever seen--the 6 person final table went on for 5+ hours. And when it got to heads up--it was over in one hand!

The cool thing is that I was working the overhead camera, and through the headset, I could hear all the commentary from the director, and the camera people. It was a hoot.

My "job" became even more important once everyone started going all-in, and I got chastised a couple of times by the producer because I wasn't fast enough zooming in for the flop. (I actually dozed off a few times). And well, Mike and Vince need to be able to see the cards so that they can keep their commentary going--it wasn't until almost the end of the tournament that I realized that Mike and Vince were looking at a monitor similar to mine.

Here are some photos from the event tonight.

The winner of the LA Poker Classic was a first time tournament player from South Africa. He was very nice and humble about his win....and he had a group of friends with him cheering him on!