Joe Cassidy Poker Tournament Updates

$10,000 Mixed - Level 6

Jun 04, '08

Players Remaining: 138 of 192

Average Stack: 27,826

Notable Chip Counts:
Greg Mueller - 89,000
Gavin Smith - 65,000
Jeff Madsen - 65,000
Erik Seidel - 63,000
Tom Schneider - 63,000
Lee Watkinson - 60,000
Phil Ivey - 60,000
Mark Vos - 58,000
Gavin Griffin - 55,400
David Oppenheim - 50,000

Recent Eliminations:
Chris Ferguson

Big Hands:

Razz: Joe Cassidy Takes One Away From Erik Seidel

With both Erik Seidel and Joe Cassidy having joined David Benyamine and Mel Judah at table 5, the action quickly increased. In the last razz hand at that table, Seidel completed the bet on third street showing the 3. Next to act, Joe Cassidy raised with the 6, generating a fold from Erik Seidel. Cassidy improved his stack to just over 18,000 with that pot.

7-Stud: Michael McKenna Doubles Up

While showing a board of 854, Michael McKenna raised an opponent showing a board of AQ9. His opponent called, and McKenna bet the T he received on sixth street. His opponent called with his newly received 8, and McKenna went all in for his remaining 700 on the river. His opponent called, and McKenna turned over the J72 for an eight-high flush. His opponent mucked his hand.

7-Stud: Joe Cassidy Cripples an Opponent

During a hand in the stud round, Joe Cassidy bet his river card having already received up cards of Q986 against his opponent’s K854. His opponent called and Cassidy revealed his 964 hole cards for two pair, nines and sixes. His opponent mucked his hand and was left with less than 3,000 in chips after losing the pot to Cassidy.

Omaha 8: Opponents Chop Up Marcel Luske’s Chips

During his table’s Omaha 8 round, Marcel Luske raised from middle position and was called by players in the cut-off and big blind. The player first to act checked the 764 flop and Luske bet. Both opponents called, and the 7 turn card was dealt. The first player and Luske both checked, and the player in last position went all-in for his last 175. Both Luske and his remaining opponent called. The river card was the J, prompting the player first to act to bet and Luske to quickly call. Luske’s opponent revealed 7522, three sevens for high and deuce five for low. Luske mucked his hand. The all in opponent couldn’t beat three sevens for high, but his ATT3 hand made ace-three for the nut low and was good for half the main pot.

Limit Hold’em: Vanessa Rousso More Than Triples Up

After posting close to a third of her remaining stack in the big blind, Vanessa Rousso successfully accumulated more than three times her stack in one hand. The player under-the-gun raised, David “Devilfish” Ulliot called from the cut-off, Lee Watkinson called from the small blind, and Rousso called. On the Q62 flop, Watkinson checked and Rousso bet. The original aggressor raised, and Ulliot folded. Watkinson called both bets, and Rousso called all in. Watkinson bet the 8 turn into the side pot, and the remaining player called. With the 3 on the river, Watkinson checked and the remaining player went all in for his remaining 350. Watkinson thought for a minute or so before folding his hand. After the side pot was pushed to the player, he revealed his AJ for a jack-high flush. Rousso turned over the KT for a king-high flush and took the main pot.

Player Tags: Erik Seidel,   Gus Hansen,   Greg Mueller,   Gavin Smith,   Joe Cassidy,   Phil Ivey,   Marcel Luske,   Vanessa Rousso,   Michael McKenna,   Jeff Madsen,   European Report

First Break of the Day

Jul 08, '07

The first level of play has come and gone on day 1C and the players are on a 20 minute break. A large percentage of the field is still hanging around and few tables have been broken. The pace of play is slower today than on the other day ones, a possible consequence of the large starting field.

While some of the players in today's field may be intimidated by the hype of the World Series of Poker, more seasoned players are using that to their advantage and picking up a lot of dead money. Phil Ivey seems to punish almost any player at his table that dares play a pot with him. In true Ivey fashion, he has been consistantly collecting small amounts of chips with preflop raises. Ivey's table presence is allowing him to dominate his table, but with Joe Cassidy in the one seat, it may only be a matter of time before Ivey gets caught.

Daniel Alaei, known for being a quiet person at the table, was not enjoying his table draw early in the day. Seated at adjacent tables were Greg Raymer, Jose Canseco and Humberto Brenes, all attracting their fair share of attention from the media and ESPN cameras. Sticking to his game, Alaei has been able to ignore the chaos and build his stack to over $30,000. Following a preflop raise from Alaei, the players in seats nine and four called. The flop came K 10 6 and the player in seat nine led out with a bet of $800. Seat four folded and Alaei called. Both players checked the turn of 9 and the river brought out the 4. Both players again checked and Alaei showed 7 7. The player in seat nine angrily mucked because it was not the first pot that Alaei had taken away from him.

Rapper/actor Nelly had a brief but eventful showing today at the World Series of Poker. Hounded by cameras all day, shortly before the break Nelly was eliminated. Nelly pushed all in with K-9 on a king high board and was called by an opponent who had flopped two pair. The pair turned into a boat on the turn and Nelly got to steppin' in his Air Force 1's.

As the few tables broke in the first level, an interesting draw put Main Event winners Chris "Jesus" Ferguson ('00) and Robert Varkonyi ('02) sharing the felt at table 66. Paying close attention to the two former champions was Allen Cunningham on table 65. Cunningham is a favorite in any tournament he is playing and with one bracelet already this summer, many believe this year may be his year. Cunningham has already built his stack to $31,000 and has no signs of slowing down.

Some well known players have already moved up the chip leader board and the current unofficial chip leader is Darrel "Gigabet" Dicken with $42,000. Close behind are J.C. Tran ($32,000), Eliah Ahmadian ($33,000), Gavin Griffin ($38,000) and Allen Cunningham ($31,000).

To get a true feel for how any tournament is going, you have got to hear directly from the players on the floor. In our Pro Blogs section you can hear from J.C. Tran, 2003 Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, renowned actor Jason Alexander and Shannon Shorr on how their day is going and what it is like to play in the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main event.


Notable Chip Counts

Phil Ivey	54,000
Chad Brown	54,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	42,500
Gavin Griffin	38,000
Danny Alaei	37,000
Steve Dannenmann	31,000
Allen Cunningham	29,750
Todd Brunson	27,800
Tony Hachem	25,750
Brad Berman	25,300
Chau Giang	24,300
Rene Angelil	23,200
Shannon Shorr	23,000
Jason Alexander	23,000
Kristy Gazes	22,300
Jon Friedberg	22,250
Andy Bloch	22,000
JC Alvarado	21,600
JC Tran	21,200
Warren Karp	21,000
Phil Gordon	21,000
Jennifer Tilly	20,500
Amnon Filippi	20,300
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow	20,200
Toto Leonidas	20,000
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	20,000
Bill Gazes	20,000
Andreas Krause	20,000
T.J. Cloutier	19,900
Greg Raymer	19,500
Clonie Gowen	19,400
Kenna James	19,000
Katja Thater	18,500
David Sklansky	18,500
Lee Watkinson	17,500
Rafe Furst	17,200
Humberto Brenes	17,000
Men "The Master" Nguyen	16,000
Chris Moneymaker	16,000
John Gale	15,100
Shannon Elizabeth	14,200
Amir Vahedi	14,000
Chris Bigler	13,000
Vanessa Rousso	10,000
Tim Phan	9,800
Tex Barch	4,650

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Chris Ferguson,   Chris Moneymaker,   Joe Cassidy,   Daniel Alaei,   Phil Ivey,   Robert Varkonyi,   Shannon Shorr

Hour Two Recap

Jul 03, '07

Surprisingly the limits have already caught up to a few players, and the eliminations are slowly beginning to crop up.  Alex Vuong and Joe Cassidy have recently busted out.  Cassidy couldn't catch up when his opponent caught trip Queens, and Vuong was eliminated when her opponent made a straight.

Daniel Negreanu was able to take one pot with a stellar 6 3.   Negreanu called his opponent's preflop bet to see a 4 3 2 flop.  Negreanu bet $100, his opponent raised to $200, and Negreanu called, the turn was the 9, Negreanu checked, his opponent bet $200, and Negreanu called, the river was the 5, Negreanu bet and his opponent reluctantly called.  As Negreanu pulled in the pot his opponent flashed him pocket Jacks.

Look for more high profile elminations in the next level.

Notable Chip Counts

Scott Murphy	7,000
Isabelle Mercier	5,900
Erick Lindgren	5,800
Kenna James	5,750
Thor Hansen	4,800
Joe Sebok	4,600
Jennifer Harman	4,400
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	4,000
David "The Dragon" Pham	3,950
Shannon Shorr	3,850
Victor Ramdin	3,825
John Racener	3,700
Joe Tehan	3,600
Warren Karp	3,500
Phil Hellmuth Sr	3,250
Tony Cousineau	3,000
Shannon Elizabeth	3,000
Noah Boeken	3,000
Michael Newburger	3,000
Mel Judah	3,000
Marcel Luske	3,000
Kathy Liebert	3,000
Juha Helppi	3,000
Humberto Brenes	3,000
Erik Seidel	3,000
Doug "Rico" Carli	3,000
David Plastik	3,000
David Chiu	3,000
David "Devilfish" Ulliott	3,000
Bill Chen	3,000
Annie Duke	3,000
Andy Black	3,000
Amir Vahedi	3,000
"Miami" John Cernuto	3,000
Cyndy Violette	2,800
Dewey Tomko	2,100
Daniel Negreanu	2,100
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi	2,000
Richard Brodie	1,850
Greg "FBT" Mueller	1,700
Nam Le	1,600
Evelyn Ng	1,350
Andy Bloch	1,300
Tony G	1,100
John Gale	500

Player Tags: Daniel Negreanu,   Joe Cassidy,   Alexandra Vuong

Field Narrows

Jun 30, '07

The field has been slimmed down to just 51 players on nine tables. There has been numerous eliminations in the last hour and the field is still 27 shy of the money.

Table 60 was the table to fear earlier in the day and it appears it may have gotten even worse. Andy Bloch went on a tear and is now in the top ten in chips after consecutively eliminating David Sklansky and Gavin Griffin. The table is now five handed and now looks like this:

Seat 1 - Joe Cassidy
Seat 2 - Robert Williamson III
Seat 3 - Steve Diano
Seat 4 - Andy Bloch
Seat 5 - Amnon Filippi

Included in the slew of recent eliminations are Robert Mizrachi, Mel Judah, Mickey Appleman, David Sklansky, Gavin Griffin, Marco Traniello, Mark Newhouse, Daniel Negreanu and David Williams.

Notable Chip Counts

Rafi Amit	47,300
Andy Bloch	40,000
Victor Ramdin	37,500
Bill Chen	37,100
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	34,000
Allen Cunningham	31,700
Steven Diano	29,800
Steve Zolotow	27,000
Greg Raymer	25,100
Joe Cassidy	24,600
Amnon Filippi	24,300
Michael Binger	22,000
Chau Giang	21,700
Hoyt Corkins	16,700
Robert Williamson III	14,600
Thor Hansen	14,300
Berry Johnston	10,100

Player Tags: Andy Bloch,   Joe Cassidy,   David Sklansky,   Gavin Griffin,   Amnon Filippi,   Steven Diano,   Robert Williamson III

Dinner Break

Jun 20, '07

Two hundred and seventy four players now remain in today’s $3,000 Limit hold’em event with an average chip stack of $6,481. Players have just gone on dinner break and will return in one hour and fifteen minutes for the start of Level 7 where the blinds will increase to $200-$400 with betting limits of $400-$800. The tournament staff will be busy coloring up the $25 chips while the players break for dinner.

In a three-handed pot, David Levi limps in from a late position followed by Annie Duke in the small blind and the player in the big blind. The flop comes K 10 6 and Annie Duke bets out. Everyone calls and the turn brings the 5. Duke checks to the big blind who bets; Levi calls and Duke folds. The river brings the 2, and the big blind bets to Levi who makes the call. The big blind turns over 7 6 for a seven-high flush while Levi shows 8 4 for the eight-high flush.

 On a flop of Q J 10, Joe Cassidy checks to the player in seat 8 who bets and Cassidy calls. The 7 hits the turn and once gain, Seat-8 bets and Cassidy calls. The river brings the J and Cassidy calls him down. Seat-8 turns over J 10 for jacks full of tens and says, “Maybe I’m just lucky.” Cassidy mucks his hands and says, “Very good.” The very next hand and the self proclaimed maniac in seat 8 takes a nice pot off of Shawn Buchanan. Six players limp into the pot pre-flop and the flop comes A J 6. Everyone checks to Seat-8 who bets out and says, “Maniac bets!” Everyone folds except for Shawn Buchanan who makes the call. The turn brings the A and Buchan bets out, and this time and Seat-8 says, Maniac raises!” as he throws another bet into the pot. Buchanan calls and the Q hits the river. Buchanan checks to Seat-8 who bets and Buchanan calls. Seat-8 shows A Q and says, “Maniac very lucky!” as he rakes the pot and Buchanan throws his cards into the muck.

Some last minute seat shuffling has created some very stacked tables in the Players Pavilion as we break for dinner. Players will return from the dinner break at 10:30 p.m., so be sure to check back with CardPlayer.com for more updates and your favorite Pro Blogs.

Notable Chip Counts

David "The Dragon" Pham	17,000
Minh Ly	16,000
Greg "FBT" Mueller	10,000
Erik Seidel	9,400
J.C. Tran	9,000
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	7,400
Ted Forrest	7,000
Chris Grigorian	6,500
Scott Fischman	6,200
Annie Duke	6,000
Phil Hellmuth	5,500
Joe Sebok	5,200
Thomas "Thunder" Keller	5,200
Kenna James	4,800
Miami John Cernuto	4,600
Barry Greenstein	4,300
Dutch Boyd	4,300
David Sklansky	2,900
Amir Vahedi	1,000

Player Tags: Annie Duke,   David Levi,   Joe Cassidy

More Big Names Fall

Jun 19, '07

Round two of today's $5,000 World Championship Heads Up No Limit Hold 'Em tournament continues through the hour with roughly 25 tables still playing. The winners are free to do whatever they want until round three starts at 10 p.m.

Current Eliminations

Shannon Elizabeth defeated
Daniel Alaei defeated Annie Duke
Tony G defeated Sam Farha
Chip Jett advanced.
Lee Watkinson defeated John Phan.
Sean McCabe defeated Steve Zolotow.


Patrick Antonius defeated Frederick Hallling
Antonius and Halling were all in after the flop. Antonius had pocket two's with a two on the flop and Halling had J 9 and was on a flush draw. The spade never came for Halling and Antonius' set held up.

Taylor "GreenPlastic" Caby defeated Jason Strasser
All in before the flop, Caby was holding A 8 and Strasser showed K J. The board came 10 6 4 8 2 and Strasser was eliminated.

John "Tex" Barch defeated Joe Cassidy
Cassidy and Barch were almost even in chips after a see saw battle that appeared to be never ending. Barch raised to $4,000 preflop and Cassidy went into the tank. Cassidy pushed all in after thinking for several moments and Barch instantly made the call. Cassidy turned over A 10 and Barch flipped over A J. The board came J 9 6 10 7 and Cassidy stood up to leave the table. Barch called him back because after the chips were counted, Cassidy had Barch covered by $1,700. Cassidy immediately pushed all in on the next hand with 6 3 and Barch called with A 9. The dealer laid out Q Q 3 2 A and Joe Cassidy was eliminated.

De Wolfe out foxes Jacob
Roland De Wolfe finally vanquished Alex Jacob in his match which lasted just over two hours. Towards the end De Wolfe forced Jacob all-in twice in quick succession from his position as dominant stack.

Both times Jacob doubled up – once with AJ Vs K3 and again with A3 Vs A2

However, the third time he was an overwhelming underdog, his K-6 offsuit against De Wolfe’s A-K offsuit and a dry board brought no help for a dejected looking Jacob and De Wolfe advances to round three.

 John Kabbaj, Rob Hollink, Jani Sointula, and Noah Boeken all won their games while Ram Vaswani was beaten.

Player Tags: Lee Watkinson,   John Phan,   Annie Duke,   Barry Greenstein,   Chip Jett,   Steve Zolotow,   Joe Cassidy,   Daniel Alaei,   John Barch,   Sam Farha,   Taylor Caby,   Patrik Antonius,   Sean McCabe,   Jason Strasser,   Fredrik Halling,   Shannon Elizabeth