Bluff Magazine 2009 Awards
At this time every year, Bluff Magazine gets ready to dole out it’s annual Readers Choice Awards. This year there are 14 categories and 4 choices in each category. I haven’t seen if the winners have been announced yet so I will pick who I think should win and who probably will win in most of the major categories. There are some categories, such as best Podcast or best Poker Forum that I won’t even try to guess a winner as I just don’t know enough about them. Feel free to voice your own opinion though.
Favourite Player of 2009: A) Phil Ivey B) Jason Mercier C) Daniel Negreanu D) Bertrand Grospellier (Elky)
For the past few years my favourite player to watch has been Daniel Negreanu. His uncanny reads at the table, his stellar play, and his good natured approach at the tables is what makes him very popular. He’s very accessible to his fans. However, for this year I’m going with Phil Ivey. His run at the World Series coupled with his huge wins online at Full Tilt, and seeing him crush the Million Dollar Poker Challenge and Poker After Dark cash games has been amazing to watch. I don’t think there were too many out there other than friends and families of the other November Nine that didn’t want to see Ivey take it down the Main Even Title. The respect he was shown at the end when he lost to Darvin Moon, and the standing ovation he got from the crowd told it all
My Pick: Phil Ivey
Probable Winner: Phil Ivey
Top Poker Blog for 2009: A) Wicked Chops Poker B) Tao of Pauly C) Pokerati D) PokerNewsDaily
Tough for me to choose here because I don’t really read any of these. I’ve read Wicked Chops Poker before and some of their articles in Bluff Magazine so I’ll pick them by default. lol
My Choice: Wicked Chops Poker
Probable Winner: Wicked Chops Poker
Top Poker Show for 2009 -- A) World Series of Poker B) High Stakes Poker C) Poker After Dark D) World Poker Tour
This was a two horse race between the WSOP and HSP in my opinion. With Ivey’s run, the improbable run of Darvin Moon, and the chance for Joe Cada to become the youngest player in history to win the WSOP Main Event, the ratings were in huge. If you listened to the radio broadcast live and then watched the shows you may have been as disappointed as I was as things just jumped around a bit and didn’t quite show how things were playing out. For example, going to commercial and then coming back to see Kevin Shaffel and Erik Buchman with their AA vs. KK hand. What happened to showing the players’ cards to the hole card cam and the reaction of the announcers? And while Joe Cada was obviously very lucky, they only showed those hands where he sucked out and not as much showing how he was willing to mix it up a lot before that. As for HSP, if it was based solely on the first 7 or 8 episodes it would win easily. The table started with Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, David Benyamine, Eli Elezra, Illaries Sohamies, Daniel Negreanu, Peter Eastgate, Doyle Brunson, and Barry Greenstein. The climax of those episodes came in the then largest pot in television history (Dwan and Phil Ivey recently broke the record again on the Full Tilt Million Dollar Challenge in London) when Dwan won just under $1M in one hand when his KQs cracked Barry Greenstein’s AA. Here’s how it went down…
Unfortunately, the group that came after them wasn’t nearly as exciting to watch and the highlight of that show was a prop bet on whether Antonio Esfandiari could do 50 push ups. The game picked up a little bit when Dwan re-entered the game but not enough because everyone except Patrik Antonius seemed scared of him. Poker After Dark will never win as long as that Ali Nejad is announcing. He’s horrible! And the WPT is always fun to watch but there just seems to be something missing. I can’t quite put my finger on it yet. Maybe it’s because less and less name pros are making final tables but I’m not sure.
My Pick: WSOP
Probable Winner: WSOP
Favourite Online Poker Site: A) Poker Stars B) Full Tilt Poker C) Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker D) Cake Poker
Another two horse race between Stars and Tilt. Ultimate Bet/Absolute are still under a cloud due to the now famous Super User scandals and trust in those sites is not back to 100% yet, and may never get there again. Cake Poker I haven’t tried as of yet. I do have it downloaded, just haven’t made my first deposit to play so I’ll stick to the two I play on the most. Stars had another great year, setting another World Record for most people to play in an online tournament and their Sunday Million $2.5M Guarantee is seeing bigger fields than ever. However, with the emergence of Isildur1 and the crazy action at the nosebleed levels on Full Tilt this year, I believe they will win this one. They’ve also adjusted their tournament structures to go up slower, much the same way Stars has already. This allows for more play and more often than not the better players to shine through more consistently
My Pick: Full Tilt
Probable Winner: Poker Stars
Favourite Poker Forum: A) PocketFives B) TwoPlusTwo C) BluffMagazine D) Full Contact Poker
PocketFives and TwoPlusTwo have been the top two forums for a couple years now. I have to admit I haven’t read a lot of Bluff’s or Full Contact’s other than to read Daniel Negreanu’s very entertaining blog. I find myself more and more on the TwoPlusTwo forum than anything else but not enough to make an educated guess as to who will win. I just assume it will be between A and B
Favourite Las Vegas Poker Room: A) Bellagio B) Venetian C) Wynn D) Caesars Palace
I have never been to Vegas so I can’t say on this one either. From what I’ve heard the pros say and from what I’ve heard from my friends, the Bellagio is the place to be
Best Poker Twitter: A) Barry Greenstein B) Doyle Brunson C) Joe Sebok D) Erik Seidel
This is sort of a weird category. I’m a follower of the first three and haven’t read any of Erik Seidel’s. Just the fact that his name is here makes me think I should at least go and see his page. I’m also surprised Daniel Negreanu’s Twitter isn’t included since he does write every day and he’s obviously very popular. Barry Greenstein tweets a lot about how he’s doing in tournaments and usually he’ll do it from the table. I like reading Doyle’s tweets because it’s interesting to see what the Godfather thinks not only about the state of poker but all things in general. I’d really like to read his autobiography one of these days. Joe Sebok’s is very entertaining and I love his sarcastic sense of humour while also being very direct with his opinions. I think him and I are a lot alike and that’s why I love reading his many tweets a day.
My Pick: Joe Sebok
Probable Winner: Doyle Brunson
Best Online Poker Player: A) Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies B) Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond C) Tom “durrrr” Dwan D) “Isildur1″
Obviously all four of these guys are amazing players. I don’t think you can say Isildur1 was the best this year as he was only around for the latter half of the year before going bust late. He did create quite a stir in the online poker world with his exploits but not for player of the year. Ziigmund was seemingly a little more quiet this year than in past years so I think the voting will come down to Galfond and Dwan. Dwan obviously gets the more publicity out of the two but Galfond just keeps plugging along, consistently winning at PLO (probably his best game) as well as the mixed games.
My Pick: Phil Ivey. That’s right. PHIL IVEY! How can this guy not be on this list? He crushed all games again this year, made the most amount of money and his name isn’t on the list? The only reason I can think of is that the names consist of those that made their name online before moving to the live games. I don’t necessarily agree with that as the title simply says “Best Online Poker Player”. The funny part is, the runner up isn’t on this list either. That should be Patrik Antonius!
Probable Winner: Tom “durrrr” Dwan
Favourite Poker Villain: A) Mike Matusow B) Phil Hellmuth C) Mark Vos D) Luke “_FullFlush1_”Schwartz
This one should be easy. Mike Matusow is not a villain. He talks a lot but not nearly how he used to and even when he does it’s usually just at Phil Hellmuth. I don’t consider Phil a “villain” either. He badmouths some of the amateurs for their play (let’s face it, a lot of the things he says are true) and also gets on Matusow. He has his usual blow ups and does whine a lot when he’s outplayed or outdrawn so I guess these are the reasons he’s on here. I’m not sure it necessarily makes him a “villain” though. Mark Vos I hear has a bit of a temper as well and I’ve seen him talk a little smack on the internet but big deal. I guess because he’s a little more profile it gets noticed more. Now Luke Schwartz on the other hand, is a true poker villain. Coming out and talking trash about Tom Dwan just because he doesn’t like the look of him, bragging about how much better he thinks he is than everyone, chat banned on Full Tilt, getting banned from casinos across the UK not once but TWICE, and the last time because he felt he didn’t have to pay for a sandwich. Are you kidding me? This guy is a moron and I wish he’d put his money where his mouth is and play Dwan so he can get busted.
My Pick: Luke”_FullFlush1″Schwartz
Probable Winner: Phil Hellmuth
Top Story of 2009: A) The Durrrr Challenge B) Phil Hellmuth Arrives at WSOP/WSOPE Dressed as Caesar C) Five Players Win Multiple Bracelets at 2009 WSOP D) Phil Ivey Makes WSOP Main Event Final Table
Let’s eliminate the ones that won’t even come close to winning. Phil Hellmuth’s arrivals aren’t even close to being a great story. He does these types of things every year and they are very very creative. It is just a “look at me” stunt while being dressed up with the Ultimate Bet logos and good entertainment but not worthy of this award. Five players winning multiple bracelets is an amazing thing as just winning one bracelet a year is a pretty big accomplishment, especially with the enormous fields these days. I just don’t think it’s THE story. The Durrrr Challenge had the poker world buzzing at the beginning of it. Online forums lit up with discussions on who would accept and how the sessions would go. However, after a decently fast start the Challenge slowed to a snail’s pace as both players had to try and find mutual times to be able to play. With both having lots of commitments in other venues, playing tournaments, TV games etc. it was hard to get the two together on the virtual felt. A year later, they STILL aren’t done so interest waned. That leaves Phil Ivey making the final table the biggest story of the year. The world’s greatest player making the final table of the game’s greatest event was simply huge for the game. Media from all over covered this story, and even as one of the shortstacked players he was considered one of the favourites. The atmosphere was electric throughout and when that unfortunate queen hit the flop you could feel the energy leave the room. But because of the two month build up, because it was Phil Ivey and because it was the WSOP Main Event, this was easily the biggest story of the year.
My Pick: Phil Ivey
Probable Winner: Phil Ivey
There you have it. Those are my picks and very soon (if not already) the winners will be announced. Who did you have as your picks, why did you pick them, and how did you fare against the eventual winners?
