WSOP Final Hands - Scotty Nguyen in 1998

In the distant 1998 @Thuan B. "Scotty" Nguyen, then 37 year old, emerged as the champion over a field of 350 players who had come to the @Binions Horseshoe to play the Main Event, forming a prizepool of $3,500,000. The hand that won Scotty one million dollars is still considered one of the most interesting ones in #WSOP history. It has also been the beginning and end of hundreds of discussions, comments, and articles on the subject of #PokerTableTalk . The hand was played very well by Scotty, as acknowledged even by his final challenger, @Kevin Mcbride.

Here is how Scotty came out victorius with the combined use of slow play, reverse psychology, acting and table talk:

Nguyen: J♦ 9♣ 

McBride: Q♥ 10♥ 

McBride opens the betting with $50,000 and Nguyen calls.
Flop comes 8♣ 9♦ 9♥ .

Nguyen checks and McBride bets $100,000. Nguyen calls.

The turn card is 8♥ giving McBride a possible flush and straight draw, while Nguyen already has a full house.

Nguyen checks again, and McBride bets another $100,000.

The river is the 8♠ and now there is a full house on the board. Scotty goes all in.

Immediately after his all in, Scotty got up from his chair and raised his beer at Kevin Mcbride with what has now become his classic line, "Call it and it will be all over, baby". As evident from McBride's shocked expression, the taunt got at him and he later admitted that Scotty's words was what made up his mind to call. "I'll play with the board," he said. And lost.

You can watch how the whole hand unfolded (note the presence of another great veteran - @Mike Matusow - on the rail; Mike had reportedly staked Scotty for one third of his 10K buy-in):

Russian Ivan Soshnikov Wins $1 Million First Prize in SCOOP 10K Main Event

This time last year, nobody had heard of @Ivan Soshnikov; then a few months ago he was the talk of the poker community when he won the EPT Prague High-Roller for $525,854; this week, his name is in everyone's poker tweets and news articles - the young Russian won the 10K Main Event of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and the prize of $1,048,000.

Ivan Soshnikov is a 23-year-old Russian from Ivanovo and plays poker for a living. As many of his fellow countrymen he was forced by national gambling regulations to seek opportunities abroad. Soshnikov scored his first live tournament cash - $2,860 - in Kiev, at the famous Khreschatyk Poker Club, which used to host events of the Russian PokerTour before the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

A series of ITM finishes at WPT and EPT events then led up to his fantastic performance at the EPT Prague High-Roller, when he topped a field of 176, including such notables as @Vanessa Selbst @Mike McDonald and @Olivier Busquet .

And he hasn't stopped scoring since - at 2014 PCA,at EPT Vienna, and most recently a 13th place at #EPTGrandFinal in Monte Carlo, adding another $95,456 to his live earnings of $723,132.

Soshnikov has shared he enjoys enormously his travels around Europe and the EPT has been very good to him so far. His latest 1 million-dollar SCOOP prize may prove an incentive (if he needed any) to test his skills across the Atlantic and we might see him at the WSOP very soon.

More on RankingHero:

Poker Under Siege in Kiev, Ukraine

Crimea - A New Home for Russian Poker?

Suspense on the Bubble at EPT Grand Final

Read a detailed account of the SCOOP final table on PokerNews:

Ivan "vandir4rek" Soshnikov Wins 2014 PokerStars SCOOP $10K Main Event for $1 Million

The Ten WSOP Main Event Winners in the Post-Moneymaker Poker Era

With just one week to go, here at RankingHero we have caught the WSOP fever too and are preparing for the high point of the poker calendar by - what else - looking at the rankings :)

Ten players have been crowned WSOP champions in the post-Moneymaker era and most are still active in the live tournament arena. Who should we watch out for in the coming 45th Annual World Poker Series?

As evident from the data above, it was the 2006 winner, Jamie Gold, who topped the largest field and pocketed the largest prize. However, he has added little (in comparative terms, of course :) to it since, and his last recorded cash was $2,720 in May, 2012.

The WSOP win unsurprisingly accounts for the large part of the career winnings of the respective players. Here is how our ten champs rank by all-time earnings:

The top three by number of ITM finishes are Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer, with 57 each, and Jonathan Duhamel, with 51. Greg Raymer tops the ranking by final table finishes with as many as 36 (ahead of Joe Hachem with 29 and Jonathan Duhamel with 24 final tables). 

We need to add at least one more name to this trio in our to-watch-out-for list: Greg Merson has had an excellent 2014 with a major cash in the 2014 PCA High-Roller where he finished second and a recent ITM finish in LAPC Main Event.

We will be comparing performances and looking at rankings throughout the WSOP and meanwhile, here is the link to the full schedule: 45th Annual World Series of Poker

Negreanu and Ivey With Public Offering of WSOP Bracelet Bet

In the past few years bracelet betting has been a multi-million dollar business and a favorite forum and poker media topic. Barry Carter recently published an overview of the top 5 greatest WSOP bracelet bets and traced the bracelet-bet boom back to 2007, when @Eli Elezra made and won a series of six-figure bets with top players such as @Doyle Brunson  @Barry Greenstein @Gus Hansen and others, against their winning a bracelet.

In 2010, @Tom Dwan was at the center of one of the most memorable moments in WSOP history as he stood to win millions in side bracelet bets (as much as $9-12 millions by various estimates) and got as far as heads-up play against @Simon Watt  in a $1,500 NL event; all eyes were on this final and high-stakes celebrities (most of the community had bet against Dwan) were getting up from their tables in simultaneous events to follow the action:

Top Ten Stories of 2010: #6, Dwan Almost Bankrupts Poker's Elite 

The man rumored to have won millions from bracelet bets is - unsurprisingly - @Phil Ivey, though the actual amounts remain mostly unconfirmed. Yet, with all the media buzz and excitement over alleged seven-figure bets, until recently the entire practice seemed largely confined within the high-stakes community itself.

A new trend seemed to emerge last year as @Jason Mercier took #WSOPBracelet betting to the general market with the following tweet:

This year, the ‘public offering’ of bracelet bets was taken a step further by @Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey:

I for one will take @Lee Davy's advice (WSOP BRACELET BETTING: DANIEL NEGREANU AND PHIL IVEY RELEASE THEIR OFFER) and decline this particular proposition from two of the most decorated players in poker but there are many forum posters who seem tempted.

Would YOU risk $5k out of your poker bankroll on this bet?..

Bellagio Treats for Poker Playing Art Lovers

Poker playing art lovers going to Vegas now have one more reason to stay at the @Bellagio - the beautiful exhibition organized together with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, showcasing 34 works by some of the best-known female artists and spanning three centuries. "Painting Women" is on view at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art (BGFA) through October 26.

#womenINpoker  are certain to be insipred by, and particularly appreciative of, one of the painters represented - Marie-Louise-Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842), a veritable pioneer and role model for all women aspiring to gain independence and recognition in the art world (and any other male-dominated area of life).  Lebrun was a member of France's Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture; the official painter, friend and confidante of Queen Marie Antoinette; she survived the French Revolution, travelled extensively, painted the members of the most important royal courts of Europe and ultimately left a legacy of 660 portraits and 200 landscapes.

Self-portrait in a Straw Hat, 1782. National Gallery, London (Lebrun scandalized critics and the public with some of her self-portraits because, contrary to painting conventions, "in smiling, she showed teeth")

Generally regarded as the most important and successful female artist of the 18th century, Lebrun is especially noted for her portraits of women. One such highly representative work is on display at the BGFA:

Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, Portrait of a Young Woman, Robert Dawson Evans Collection, Photography©2013 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Other featured artists  - Mary Cassatt, Georgia O’Keeffe and Berthe Morisot, among others - need no further introduction. Poker players will no doubt find a visit to this exhibition a great way to clear and refresh their mind and senses in-between sessions at the tables! 

Make sure you follow the Bellagio page on RankingHero to stay up-to-date with the latest promotions and best offers!

So you're flying to Vegas baby?..

Finally there's transportation worthy of poker high-rollers and the best airline seat available now is...a bed!

The new first-class suite of Etihad Airways,complete with bedroom, living room, 32" TV and private butler; available now for only $21,000 :)

If however, you're a regular 'economy class' poker tourist and have just negotiated time off with your boss and/or family for a trip to the WSOP, you may need some more practical #VegasBaby tips and we asked our own RankingHero ambassador, @Nicolas Levi to share his experience and some advice on flying to Vegas.

Here are seven lucky tips from Nicolas Levi:

1) Book NOW. Actually book last month

2) Fly direct. If you can't fly direct get a connection in Europe, better to get it over with and then rest in the plane than do two long flights with a change in the middle. Furthermore connections in the US are far more likely to be complex. Also you want to face the Las Vegas security if your job is poker player. They undersand.

3) Declare it if you're bringing a lot of cash ($10,000). Nothing bad will happen if you declare it. Don't say I didn't warn you.

4) Reset your body clock by not eating your "dinner". It works like this: stop eating 14 to 19 hours before it's breakfast time in Vegas. Really it just means missing one meal on the plane, no big deal. When you next eat your body will understand that it's breakfast time and reset much better.

5) Set an alarm 24 hours or 48 hours before your flight takes off (as soon as available depending on company). Go online and choose your seat. Prefer ones in a small cabin (quieter) or close to the exit at the front: being the first out means less queuing at border control.

6) If it's your first time, arrive 2 nights before the tournament unless you are doing my jetlag tip. Remember you need to be fresh and rested if you will be playing three straight 8-hour days.

7) Win lots of money, upgrade to first class on the way back. Good Game.

Weekly RankingHero Highlights

This week we cheered for several RankingHero members who did great at #BPTDeauville Main Event, finishing 4th - @Nicolas Villemin, 3rd - @Brian Benhamou  and 2nd - @Laurent HADOT. Laurent treated us to an excellent account of his first BPT at Deauville, which you can read in French on his blog page: Mon 1er BPT à Deauville, un week-end rempli d'émotions !

We tested our poker face reading skills with the test developed by psychologist Paul Ekland and published by BBC Science: Spot the Fake Smile and we imagined a possible final table for The Big One for One Drop - the $1,000,000 buy-in tournament that makes even the Poker Big Ones dream.

This week's VegasHero ambassador, @Benjamin Pollak was on RankingHero last night for a Q&A session. He shared he could hardly expect to find another occupation that would give him such freedom and enjoyment yet has been considering options for 'life after poker' for at least two years now.

Featured festivals and tournaments: BPT Deauville.

Ranking of the week: the all-time Bulgaria earnings ranking has seen @Atanas Gueorguiev move up to second place, just $16,000 ahead of the 2013 WSOP bracelet winner @Simeon Naydenov.

Find more on some of the weekly topics under the hashtags: #womenINpoker #BGPoker #OneDrop 

Warm welcome to @Ruth Hall  - a WiPHoF induction nominee dedicated to bringing more women into poker; Ruth recently collected a number of helpful WSOP tips for women.  We are happy that the RankingHero community has grown with hundreds of new accounts created in the past week, among whom @Philippe Culot  @Leandro Gaone @Benjamin Brami and many, many others :)

Special thanks to Poitiers Poker Club and to everyone posting and sharing links, articles, photos, hand histories, and - last but not least - funny gifs and jokes so that we all have useful & fun content to come back to on RankingHero!  

We will be happy to see you on Facebook as well and count on you to spread the word and help our community grow :)

Yours truly,

@Annie RKH 

#RKHweekly 

Poker Gossip Column - Molly Bloom's Revealing Book About Star-Studded High-Stakes Games

"In the late 2000s, Molly Bloom, a twentysomething petite brunette from Loveland Colorado, ran the highest stakes, most exclusive poker game Hollywood had ever seen—she was its mistress, its lion tamer, its agent, and its oxygen. Everyone wanted in, few were invited to play.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were won and lost at her table. Molly’s game became the game for those in the know—celebrities, business moguls, and millionaires. Molly staged her games in palatial suites with beautiful views and exquisite amenities. She flew privately, dined at exclusive restaurants, hobnobbed with the heads of Hollywood studios, was courted by handsome leading men, and was privy to the world’s most delicious gossip, until it all came crashing down around her."

The above is an excerpt from the HarperCollins dramatic introduction to the book that will be on sale from June 24. There is little one can add to pique readers' interest except perhaps a reminder of some of the illustrious regulars at these high-stakes games - the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, @Tobey Maguire  @Ben Affleck and @Matt Damon 

An excellent article by The New York Observer has the full story, from Molly Bloom's rise to celebrity high-stakes hostess to the widely publicized illegal gambling lawsuit, as well as testimonials from various unnamed sources and from TV producer and poker player @Houston Curtis : 

“Molly Bloom was a smart, sweet, ambitious girl, who worked very hard to organize what had to be one of the biggest, most star-studded weekly poker games of all time. In all of my personal dealings with her, she acted honorably, above board and with the utmost integrity."

We'll have to wait for the book to appear to see how the Hollywood stars are portrayed. Meanwhile, sources differ as to whether or not Molly Bloom 'takes on' or 'crushes' Tobey Maguire (who allegedly was paying Leonardo DiCaprio's entry fee just to have him there as a lure for bigger fish), while being 'kind' to Affleck and Damon.

More on RankingHero:

Are Poker Home Games Legal in Your Country?

Ruth Hall with Helpful WSOP Hints for the Ladies

@Ruth Hall is a seasoned poker player (started playing at the age of 9, taught by her grandfather :) and a WSOP circuit veteran. Over the years she has accumulated  $84,728 in live earnings and has won and finished ITM in dozens of ladies tournaments (including an 18th place at the 2010 WSOP Ladies NLHE Championship) and open events.

Ruth 'Ruthless' Hall was recently featured in poker news around the web as one of the nominees for induction into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame. On the WiPHoF site Ruth was introduced as "a tireless volunteer in promoting women in poker". 

"Playing in WSOP Circuit events, I’ve made it my mission to get more ladies involved in poker and the WSOP."

With the WSOP season about to kick off, Ruth has collected a number of useful hints from various pros and semi-pros, published in an article on the website of Ladies in Poker Series. LIPS was founded by @Lupe Soto with the goal "to promote and provide poker tournament venues for women poker players seeking opportunities to challenge other women in comfortable, friendly, and yet competitive environments".

"Life is a game, I’m all in!"

The ladies will find a wide range of practical tips - from what to wear (layers!). where to get a delicious Vietnamese soup, what kind of snack to bring and how to plan restroom trips. There's inspirational and strategy advice, as well, such as this quote from @Tonya Baltazar :)

Don’t bluff women, they call you down with bottom pair.

Once again, a warm welcome to Ruth in the Rankinghero community and we will be looking forward to reading lots of good news and interesting WSOP stories on her RKH blog page!

More on #womenINpoker on RankingHero:

Women in Poker Hall of Fame Finalists - Allyn Jaffrey Shulman

Congrats Again to All Season 10 Ladies Event Winners

Ruth Hall's post on LIPS:

WSOP Helpful Hints for Women

Must follow :) http://www.rankinghero.com/laurent.hadot

Mon 1er BPT à Deauville, un week-end rempli d'émotions !

Laurent HADOT on Rankinghero

Plusieurs personnes m'ont demandées de raconter un peu ce que j'avais vécu récemment lors du #BPTDeauville, du coup, j'en fais le récit sur #RankingHero, ça donnera peut-être des envies à...