Born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1967, Kathy later moved to Las Vegas. Unlike most other women players on the Poker circuit, she does not speak much, does not use feminine vile to impress or win and is known as one of the most serious women players around. For her, it’s just about Poker skill. She has continued to remain among the top female players of the game for several years now. She’s also one of the few women players who insist that there should not be separate tournaments for women.

Kathy has been known to repeat before the media that Poker is about patience, discipline and intelligence and women should not be discriminated against by considering them as lesser players in comparison to men.

Liebert took to Poker as a 12-year-old when her mother and their guests would play on the kitchen table. She didn’t take it seriously and went on to study business and finance. She started working as a business analyst but didn’t find creative satisfaction. Finally, she heeded her mother’s advice to do what her heart wanted and Kathy switched to betting on the stock market. That helped her quit her job but she was still looking for something she really wanted to do.

Her quest led her to Las Vegas where she tried her hand at Poker and was hooked. She decided to live in Colorado to be able to ski in the Rocky Mountains and play $5 Limit Poker nearby at the Blackhawk and Central City gambling resorts. The management of the resorts found her spending much too time at the Poker table and asked her to become one of the prop players which only honed her skills.

Eventually, Kathy decided it was time to play a tournament and finished second in her first Omaha Hi Lo poker event. She finished second again at another event of Texas Hold Em a week later. Now, she has notched up more than $4 million in tournament winnings and has a bracelet win at a World Series of Poker event. She became the first woman to win a million dollars at Poker with her victory at the PartyPoker.com Inaugural event. There she beat the likes of Mel Judah, Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, Ken Flaton, and Phil Hellmuth at the final table.

Her professional Poker expertise was also on show in 2004 fetching her a WSOPbracelet in the $1,500 Limit Hold Em Shootout event and in 2005 with a first place at the televised Poker Royale: Battle of the Sexes.

Kathy is a sure fixture on the Poker tournament and her fans are not just women. Everyone who loves Poker cheers for this lady with grit and gumption of the unique kind that only Poker winners have.

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The heads up battle lasted a total of five hours with Shulman going up against Daniel Negreanu for the cash and the title. Negreanu picked up £495,000 for his trouble. The USA also had two more runners in the final nine with Jason Mercier and Matt Hawrilenko coming 4th and 8th respectively.

The British players also had a showing with perhaps two of the top no-limit poker tournament players in the country right now coming 3rd and 9th respectively. Praz Bansi came third winning around £360,000 and WSOP “November Nine” finalist James Akenhead coming ninth and picking up £66,533 in the process.

Amazingly this wasn’t the only connection with the final table of the main WSOP event next month as Barry Shulman is the father of Jeff Shulman who will be taking his place at that final table and also seventh place finisher Antoine Saout from France will be there as well. The final table itself lasted a gruelling seventeen hours but it didn’t take long for Akenhead to fall as his A-Q was outgunned by the pocket kings of Negreanu. Daniel Negreanu then started rolling along like a freight train and rapidly took the lead.

But almost the entire night, Barry Shulman went unnoticed and when the action went three way between Negreanu, Bansi and Shulman, not many people were predicting a win for the quiet American. Bansi actually doubled Shulman up when his KK was outdrawn by the Americans A-9 when an ace appeared on the turn. The home support had strongly been behind the two British players but that crushing blow left Bansi as the short stack and he was eliminated shortly after.

The heads up confrontation looked to be ending early as Negreanu had pocket aces against the flush draw of Shulman. The flush came in and suddenly Shulman had doubled through again. But Negreanu was sticking to the strategy in his no-limit hold ‘em book and was taking lots of tiny uncontested pots. But then Negreanu ran into an unfortunate situation where he was then on the receiving end of pocket aces.

The flop was Jc-8d-5d and Negreanu had the Qc-Jd. There had been some heavy flop betting and raising and Shulman moved all-in….Negreanu eventually called. Then amazingly Negreanu catapulted into the lead when a jack came on the turn but just like the title of another great book by Barry Greenstein……Ace on the River and Negreanu was crushed.

Negreanu soon shoved all-in with pocket fours and ran into pocket tens for Shulman, no such luck for Negreanu and he exited in second place after having looked the likely winner for long periods of time. This was one of the most remarkable final tables of the year and is certainly one that will live long in the memory for anyone who was there to witness it.

By Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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He appeared around the 6th August and began challenging the best players to heads up matches and full ring games. Dwan obliged and the two have battled it out over the last couple of weeks logging some monster pots. Martonas has managed to get the best of it, causing Dwan to admit that he has been forced to deposit money for the first time since his initial deposit of $50 at the beginning of his poker career. According to a high stakes website, Martonas is showing a profit of $1.85 million since early August of this year! Contributing to his cash haul is a big win posted over top player Phil Ivey also.

Naturally the forums are alight with speculation on who this player is. The “Who is Martonas” thread on the forum has had around 33,000 page views with over 100 replies. Apparently the player is from Sweden which is a hotbed of aggressive poker talent. There has been major speculation that it is an already well known cash player under a different username, but this is unlikely. Martin De Kniff is a name that has been mentioned more than once by numerous forum posters either alone or as part of a collaboration between Swedish poker professionals. Regardless of his identity the tables are filling up very fast when he plays which suggests that the top players are not convinced he can continue to crush the biggest games as he has been so far this month.

One of the hands Martonas played shows just how fearless this player is. Playing $500 / $1000 he re-raised before the flop with K 10 diamonds. Aejones bluffed at the pot three times with 6 8 firing three quarter pot size bets on each street, the final bet being $93,000. Martonas called with top pair, slightly weaker kicker! He had also called with King high on a rainbow flop as he hit the king on the turn. As we have discussed previously, because cash players hold deeper stacks they are more willing to call the standard continuation bet due to it being a standard move whether players hit or miss after a pre-flop raise. At the moment players believe they get more “honest” bets in relation to their opponents hand strength on the turn and the river. Martonas obviously has the heart of a lion to call a player down but the play at these high stakes tables is usually loose and aggressive with big swings. Considering the players do not know his identity, it is difficult for them to know if he has a hand so he always gets action in his pots.

High stakes poker action is alive and well at the top of the poker pyramid. Every so often a player emerges that sets the high stakes game alight. This is going on at the moment so if you enjoy watching the biggest games surf over to the high stakes tables and rail the best players. If you have never railed before the high stakes tables can be a great place to learn how the best players play their hands. David Benyamine, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey often play together and where else can you watch live poker from your own home like this for free?

By Malcolm Clarke

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As I mentioned in a previous article the poker player who has cash and cares about their profile would be interested in playing this match with Dwan, as the positive PR they will receive will be huge. They will instantly become a face in the poker industry and probably secure some high profile sponsorship and invites to big tournaments. Sammy George is a player whom being in the spotlight and in the action comes naturally to this player. He is a controversial character with an imposing presence at the table and he is tailor made for the image of the action player that many poker rooms enjoy associating with.

A quick search online after the announcement of George’s participation in the challenge saw a flurry of forum posts asking who George was and there is a surge of interest in this larger than life character. George does have one good poker tournament result to his name with a 21st place finish in the WPT Bellagio Cup V No Limit Championship held on 13th July 2009 for $23,245. George is primarily a cash game player and avid poker viewers may know him from his appearance on the Pokerheaven.com European Cash game which featured notable players including Peter Eastgate, Andy Black and Neil Channing. He is also a regular at the £25 – £50 cash game at the London Victoria casino and his nickname comes from his propensity to play a hand with any two cards.

George is often dismissed as a bad player due to his gambling style of playing any two cards at any time. This is a dangerous style that few players can show a profit utilising. Sammy is a successful businessman in the UK and uses this wealth to fund his poker activities. This style may be dangerous for the player, but it also creates doubt in the mind of his opponents who find it very difficult to put him on a hand. What do you do if he raises you? It is not easy to play unpredictable players and we will see big pots with Dwan and George not believing their respective bets indicate strong hands. For this reason the first challenge match should be full of action and be fantastic viewing.

George has commented in a previous interview on Dwans skills. He said “I’ve watched him play a few games online. I’ve watched him on TV, I’ve watched him live and to be honest, he has some moves, but you want to see if they have the same moves when their pockets are short”. (CardplayerEurope.com August 01 2009). This suggests that he believes that Dwan is a player who, like Sammy, makes elaborate moves at the poker table because he can afford to lose. Perhaps George is the best man to face Dwan, a player who has played in the largest cash games in Europe and will face the young superstar and dare him to bluff. Dwans skill comes from reading his opponents and betting his hands strongly. Facing a player who does likewise will be explosive.

This match up is eagerly anticipated and will certainly start the challenge match series with a bang. Make sure you tune in to find out if “Any 2” can beat “Durrrr” when the challenge begins.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Teaming up with Matchroom Sport, Dwan has laid out the conditions to his challengers wishing to participate. The matches will be played over 500 hands, with a $500,000 buy-in. The blinds will be $500 – $1000 so action will be fast. Each player is not allowed to quit unless they go broke or the 500 hands have been played. There has been no announcement who his opponents will be, or exactly when or where the challenge will take place. It is pencilled in for November. This may mean that WSOP final table participant Phil Ivey may be unable to take part. This may or may not be deliberate on Dwans part, although Ivey would probably play the match the day before the final table and fly over to Las Vegas to make the final table!

His challenge against Antonius was expected to move at a faster pace than it has done. There were numerous short sessions until a long 14 hour session in June, which turned out to be the last session played so far. Interestingly, it was Dwan who overturned a large deficit in the session to take a $726,000 lead with 20,000 hands played of the scheduled 50,000 match. Antonius may now revert back to shorter sessions where he dominated the match until the longer session.

Dwan is something of a phenomenon in poker. He is a player of great skill and at 21 was already an online poker legend. He built up his bankroll quickly and became a feared player, due to his hyper aggressive style, in the biggest cash games against some of the best players in the world. He famously outdrew Phil Hellmuth to knock him out of a heads up tournament ending in another Hellmuth rant where Dwan continually challenged him to a heads up match at any stakes he liked. Hellmuth accepted but the match never took place. Often criticised is Dwans gambling nature which sees him endure massive swings each week. If you read some of the high stakes match commentaries published online each week he is normally either the biggest winner or the biggest loser. He plays a risky style with major conviction that he has the skills to be a long term winner. So far that has been the case with huge wins each year.

British pro Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliott may be a player keen to challenge Dwan in London later this year. Devilfish is a skilled heads up player who has an excellent record in heads up matches against the likes of Sammy Farha and other top players. Phil Ivey may also play, if the schedule fits in with his WSOP preparation, and the $500,000 will be no problem to him. Players like David Benyamine and possibly Patrik Antonius himself are a possibility.

Some of the more unlikely may be Illari “Zigmund” Shahmies, another big online winner or the very outspoken Luke “Fullflush1” Schwartz who claims to be the best player in the world. Phil Hellmuth may be tempted by the T.V. exposure to make an appearance both for himself and his poker brand, Ultimate Bet.

One thing is for certain that with Dwans style of play these matches will be amazing viewing for poker players and you should definitely look out for more updates and tune in. Hopefully Zigmund and Fullflush1 will showcase pokers top young talent and make a name for themselves in live poker.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Kevin Schaffel is a divorcee from Coral Springs Florida with two grown up children. He managed to finish 42nd in the WSOP main event of 2004 and has had a few other good cashes since then leading up to this final table appearance. He is currently sixth in chips with a total of $12,390,000. He will need to make a few moves to get into contention, possibly doubling up through Darvin Moon if he finds a hand worth playing back at the chip leader with. His hobbies including playing golf, gin rummy and racquetball and he said his ambition is to play poker more and win a big tournament. He may do both here, but is one of the less likely players to win it based on his chip stack.

Steven Begleiter hails from Chappaqua, New York and is third in chips with a stack of $29,885,000. What is surprising about Steven is that he plays the game recreationally and usually for low stakes. He learned the game playing in tournaments at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut and according to various quotes he feels he may be outclassed in a field of top players. Fortunately for him, the main event tends to offer a blend of amateur and experienced players at final table so he is definitely in a position to ladder up a few more spots and certainly be in the running to take the title. According to Bluff Magazine Steven has no other notable cashes to his name, so this is a great chance for him to do well, but he may find it difficult to make the right play in tough spots as the money will mean the world to him.

Second in chips with a stack of $34,800,000 is Eric Buchman. He is not far from the chip leader and finds himself in a very strong position moving into the final table. Eric is 29 and from Valley Stream, New York. He is a legitimate poker player in terms of his previous winnings of over $1 million in tournaments including second place in the 2007 WSOPC Atlantic City Main event winning over $208,000. Eric has made two other WSOP final tables and has over 22 notable event cashes to his name. This man can play tournament poker and with the stack that he takes into the final table many would argue he is in the strongest position seeing as Darvin Moon is so inexperienced. Buchman is a favourite to win the event in my opinion.

Joe Cada is a college drop-out done well. He is an aggressive poker player who even played back at Phil Ivey a few times leading up to the final table. He has two notable WSOP cashes to his name and is holding a stack of $13,215,000 going into the final table. Joe spends most of his time playing cash games and certainly has plenty of poker experience to back up his stack. If he can get lucky and get enough chips to challenge the leaders this player certainly knows how to win.

25 year old Frenchman Antoine Saout is our final participant of the November 9. He hails from Saint Martin des Champs, France and holds $9,500,000 going into the final table which is one of the shortest stacks. Antoine is an inexperienced poker player having only learning to play eighteen months ago and winning his seat via a $50 satellite online. Should he go on to win, he could have an effect on poker like Chris Moneymaker did in 2003. This is an amazing achievement to get to where he is in such a short space of time. For three days Saout sat to the left of the great Phil Ivey, so there is no doubt he has a good grasp of the game and could be the surprise package of the final table. Many players on Everest will be sweating his final table appearance with $1 million being split 51 ways for around $19,000 per person.

My prediction for the winner? Eric Buchman. He is a class poker player with a stack to threaten.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Phil Ivey must be the first player we discuss as he is the legitimate star of the final table. He is arguably the best poker player at the final table and will be the only player not fazed by the huge prizes on offer. Ivey sometimes wins and loses millions of dollars gambling so this final table is just another day at the office for him. He is one of the few players that make so much money from poker; the actual potential win or loss needs to be astronomical before it affects him in any way. There is just no way he will play scared, which makes him dangerous. One double-up from his current stack of $9,765,000 will see him have a good chance to win.

Darvin Moon is the massive chip leader with $58,930,000 in chips. He hit hand after hand leading into the final table and definitely would have preferred to play to a finish as luck was on his side. He now has to sit on his huge chip advantage and hope that his card rush continues. Four months is a long time in poker, we may see a redressing of the chip balance by the poker gods once play resumes. Darvin owns a logging company and said he would be back at work following his great run. He won his seat playing in a tournament in West Virginia and has only played poker for three years. Moon is an amateur player with no major cashes before this and the Americans will be behind him as the true working class hero. My thoughts are that he will need to continue hitting cards to beat the table.

Jeff Schulman is a well-known professional who has threatened to throw the WSOP winners bracelet into the trash if he wins. He feels his magazine Card Player, of which he is the editor, was unfairly treated by the WSOP when they gave media rights to pokernews exclusively. After a meeting with Jeffrey Pollack he toned down his comments but there is still great interest in just what will happen should he go on to be victorious at the final table. His stack of $19,580,000 gives him plenty of room to play. Jeff is an excellent player and apart from Ivey is probably the most well-known player at the table.

UK poker player James Akenhead is sitting to the right of Darvin Moon in Seat 2 and to the left of Phil Ivey. This means he will have to be aware of the biggest stack and the best player when making his moves. James is also the short stack at $6,800,000 so things are not looking great for him on paper. James plays a short stack well but will need at least two double ups to get into contention. The blinds are not super high but he will need to make a move sooner rather than later. If he catches a hand early then expect him to make a move as he will be playing to win and is a fearless player. Readers should know that James has been compared to Stu Ungar by some players and has accomplished brilliant results in his short poker career. One to watch for this event if he can double up and certainly in the future.

Check out the second part of this article to read about the rest of the players, their chances to win and my prediction on who will win it all.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Poker professionals have since been very vocal in their belief that quite simply the main event should not have sold out. From a financial point of view, for every player registered into the main event earns the casino and WSOP organisers $800 as an entry fee. This means that refusing players entry into the event costs them money which is a foolish proposition for any business. There have been rumours that around 500 players were informed when trying to register for Day 1d that they were unable to enter. This included Ted Forrest, Patrik Antonius and other well-known professional players. This lack of preparation cost the tournament organisers approximately $400,000 in tournament fees alone.

Smaller events also sold out, particularly in the early part of the series where tournament fields are generally smaller. Whilst not as high profile as the main event this still causes concern as the World Series is such a massive part of the poker calendar it is correctly expected that they pull out all the stops to make sure everyone who wants to play has the opportunity to get into the events. It is simply good customer service.

Professional player Todd Witteles suggested that Harrah’s should have been better prepared. He said it is a well-known fact that players tend to prefer to wait and play on Day 1c or 1d when scheduling their main event. Whether this is down to laziness or wanting to keep the dream alive as long as possible we cannot know, but with this information it was suggested that the entire casino floorspace should be prepared if necessary for the onslaught. Witteles argued that if you expect 3000 players maximum prepare for 4000 so no-one misses out. Time must be set aside for setting up tables and chairs, laying out the poker chips and finding the poker dealers. Once it became clear too many players wanted to play at that point it was too late and entries had to be refused.

Playing an extra day 1e for the 500 players who missed out was not an option either. The structure of who played together for the two second days leading down to one day of play with the remaining players were organised in advance and it would have been chaos to try and fit players in. No doubt problems would have occurred and although unfortunate, turning players away was the only option. The mistake was not looking at last years numbers and realising extra capacity was required for a hectic last opening day. Airlines use previous year’s figures to predict passenger volume and Harrah’s should have used this technique to ensure everything was in place for a busy Day 1d.

One of the players who missed out may have gone on to win the event. At the very least the prize fund would have increased and this helps the prestige and media attention that shines onto the main event. The media coverage needs to be about the poker, and not about the lack or preparation and statements by unhappy players. We all hope that next year these problems are solved and we have yet another fantastic WSOP in 2010 with everyone getting into the main event who wishes to buy-in and take their shot.

By Malcolm Clarke

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He battled as a short stack for much of the final day, but now sits alongside Phil Ivey as a part of the final table of the main event. He is guaranteed $1.2 million and alongside the many endorsement contracts he will be able to take advantage of building up to the final table, he should be set for life financially. James has also just signed up with Full Tilt Poker which is a massive achievement for him and a major endorsement that he has arrived in the poker world.

Before he was a poker player, James was ranked as a 20 year old in the top 25 of the UK professional 9 ball pool rankings. He was also a train driver. Within Pool circles he was always thought of as a tough player to beat, but switched over to poker when he realised earnings were potentially much more lucrative than Pool could ever offer. It was a good decision.

After domestic success winning around £25,000 at a big event in Newcastle, James flew to the 2008 WSOP and bought into one of the first events with a buy-in of $1,500. After carving up the field and the final table he went heads up for the bracelet. He took a vicious beat to deny him the win and eventually settled for second place and around $500,000 in prize money. He was touted as a future champion, with comparisons to Stu Ungar made by more than one fellow professional, which is massive praise indeed as Ungar is known as one of the greatest tournament players of all time.

After his big win, his profile increased and he was picked out as a potential UK player to watch heading into this years WSOP. How right they were! James beat out all-comers and clinched a place in the November 9 after a rollercoaster run in the main event. He is the short stack heading into the final table with just over $6 million in chips. He will need to work them very quickly to get into contention; the chip leader has $58 million!

James is joined in the final nine by Phil Ivey, known as the “Tiger Woods of Poker”. Jeff Schulman also takes his seat, showing that professionals can do well in this event as the final table has for the past few years been inhabited mainly by amateurs. This helps the skill versus luck debate that rages about poker, there are a lot of very good players at this final table.

Barry Carter of Pokernews writes that James’s appearance at the final table will be great for Poker in the UK. I agree. Barry believes that as the short stack the UK poker public will get behind him as the underdog with true British vigour. James is a normal, easy going guy by all accounts and a member of the new Hendon mob type group of young poker players, the Hit Squad. He is the perfect pin up for British poker and we hope that he beats the odds as he has done so many times before and takes the title. It will be awesome for James, and awesome for poker in the UK. If James wins the reaction in the UK may be similar to when Chris Moneymaker won in 2003, the general public will see the route to riches within poker and it will reignite poker as a genuine opportunity. We all hope James has a great final table and we will be railing him all the way to the bracelet!

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Well it seems that someone forgot to tell the poker players as an even bigger legion of players have made the trek to Las Vegas for the annual World Series of Poker. This year, there were a total of 115 different countries represented at the series but what was remarkable was that last years record of 58,720 total participants was actually surpassed this year in what is a global economic slump.

No fewer than 60,875 players participated in a total of 57 tournaments which is 2,155 up on last year, an increase of nearly 4%. Other records were broken too and this years figure of $174 million dollars in total prize money is another landmark total. Also the total prize money since the WSOP first began in 1970 has now passed the billion dollar mark.

This years main event final table will feature nine players, all of which are guaranteed to walk away with at least a million dollars and the winner will walk away with more than eight million dollars. Another amazing statistic was that a total of 39 out of the 57 events had prize money of a million dollars or more, this was yet another record.

The World Series of Poker president and commissioner Jeffrey Pollack remarked how “our results have exceeded every expectation”. The records kept on tumbling with 10 out of the 57 events being sell outs and the $1000 no-limit texas hold’em event became the largest non main event tournament in history with a staggering 6012 players. Even the non hold’em events like Omaha and 2-7 lowball were attracting increased crowds and event #55 which was the limit 2-7 lowball triple draw set a new record as the largest tournament in history of its kind.

Event #5, the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament became the biggest PLO tournament in history with a staggering 809 entries, a huge figure for a non hold’em event. On a personal front we even had a triple bracelet winner in Jeff Lisandro who became only the 5th player in WSOP History to achieve that goal.

So 2009 will go down as a great year for the WSOP and it hasn’t even finished yet. The main event is in full swing as we speak and by next week we will know who the “November Nine” will be and the contenders for this years title of “World Poker Champion”. So what has made 2009 so popular and why are the numbers up on last year in what is a global economic crisis?

Well I think the main reason is that poker is just so popular with the masses. Plus when you keep in mind that there are millions of young single men with no attachments as yet who can make the trip to LV without having to worry about family ties then this is another factor.

Plus, the poker sites themselves have been responsible for getting large numbers of players to the Series. Countless numbers of satellites and qualifying events and WSOP packages have been contested by hundreds of millions of amateur poker players for months on end.

Most of the players at the series have got there by only investing a tiny sum of money. Also we have to remember that Chris Moneymaker turned $40 into $2.5 million dollars when he won the main event in 2003. So the WSOP is going strong in 2009 and who would care to back against more records being broken in 2010…..not me.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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