Gary Blackwood Poker

To say that there have been some strangeoccurrences going on at the Rio for the 2019 World Series of Poker ChampionshipEvent (the “Main Event”) would be a huge understatement. A check of the lunarcalendar doesn’t show that there is a full moon or any other heavenly alignmentto cause issues, but there have been not one but TWO disqualifications on Day1C AND Phil Ivey’s stay in the tournament was quicker than a couple in the backseat of a car on Prom Night. Then, to top it off, an earthquake paused actionon Friday night, sending players scattering for cover and officials to dealwith the headaches.

• Total life earnings: $74,957. Latest cash: $20,200 on 03-Jul-2019. Click here to see the details of Gary Blackwood's 9 cashes.
• View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1991 CD release of Union on Discogs.

Things You Don’t Do at a Casino, Part 1

Gary Blackwood poker tournament results, including recent cashes, lifetime winnings, WSOP and WPT stats.

The first instance of disqualification wasa pretty simple one. According to reports from WSOP.com, a player who justpicked up a small pot, Georgii Belianin, suddenly decided while he was scoopingup said pot that he would swipe a stack of chips from his opponent on his left’sstack. Upon being notified of the action, none other than WSOP TournamentDirector Jack Effel came to the table, which also featured former WorldChampion Joseph McKeehen, and escorted the gentleman from the felt.

Here’s the kicker: Belianin’s chips wereremoved from the tournament, but his $10,000 entry fee stayed in the prize pool.PokerNews.com quoted Effel as saying, “Here’s the thing; you’re playing theMain Event…you can’t touch other player’s chips.” Although there were some atthe table who thought Belianin might have done what he did as a joke, when you’vepopped $10,000 for your right to play in the tournament, you don’t mess around.

Things You Don’t Do at a Casino, Part 2

The second disqualification incident was abit more…revealing. Apparently an all-in player decided to take the “all-in”part more seriously than others, declaring his move and flipping up his handand showing his cards (Q-3) while there were still players to decide theiraction. As a player pondered his move, the all-in player decided to drop trouand moon the table, yelling “I’m all in blind!” He then decided to remove hisshoes and throw them at the table, with one shoe hitting the dealer and apparentlysparking the disqualification.

The person in question was filmed doingthis in a Tweet that was shared by Scott Davies (and we also h/t toblattsmullet):

Gary Blackwood Poker Tournament

Enter Phil Ivey…and Exit Phil Ivey

Phil Ivey came to the WSOP this summerlooking to add to his 10 WSOP bracelets and, after coming up short in the$50,000 Poker Players’ Championship, had one of his final chances for 2019 inthe “Main Event.” That chance lasted all of 60 minutes for the Poker Hall ofFamer, either because of crappy cards or disinterest (it is well known thatIvey is more into high stakes cash games than pursuing tournament pokerimmortality).

Seated in one of the auxiliary playingareas that was being employed by the WSOP due to the massive throngs ofplayers, Ivey didn’t even make it out of the first level of the day. Afterstarting with a 60K stack, Ivey had been cut down to less than half that amount(25K) when he decided to clash with Jeffrey Chang and Hirotaka Nakanishi.Little did Ivey know that this would be his final hand of the ChampionshipEvent.

After Chang opened the action, Nakanishithree bet and Ivey made the call. After Chang added in his chips, the 9♥ 7♠ 10♠flop hit the felt and the fireworks were sparked. Chang would check his optionand saw Nakanishi bet and Ivey call. Chang now came to life, putting out a 6500-chipbet, which was enough to get Nakanishi to give up the ghost. Ivey wasn’t done,however, plopping the remainder of his stack (17,500) into the center and Changsnapped him off.

Chang: 10-9
Ivey: A♠ 4♠

Ivey put his tournament life at risk witha flush draw, running into the two pair of Chang, and desperately needed for aspade to come. Instead, a J♣ came on the turn and, once the 3♥ hit the river,Ivey was out of the tournament in the first level of the day’s action.

Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On

If all of this wasn’t enough, there was anearthquake that saw the tournament send players to an early dinner break. At approximately8:19PM, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck in California. As Las Vegas was theclosest major city to the Ridgecrest epicenter of the quake, the Rio felt theeffects. ESPN’s cameras, which were showing the Day 1C action on their airwaves,caught the effects of the quake, with their cameras shaking and unable to focuson the tables.
With players a bit unnerved by the tumbler, WSOP officials shipped the playersout of the massive structures that make up the Rio convention arenas (and serveas the playing grounds for the WSOP) and to a dinner break. It also gave themtime to clean up some of the damage, as some chandeliers fell from the ceilingsand shattered on the floor but didn’t hit any people.

Gary Blackwood Poker Tournaments

Unofficial Top Five Led by Day 1A LeaderCampanello

With the three Day Ones now in the books,we do have an unofficial Top Five:

1. Bryan Campanello, 417,500 (Day 1A)
2. Adam Owen, 351,800 (Day 1B)
3. Raymond Travis Rice, 335,000 (Day 1A)
4. Asi Moshe, 330,200 (Day 1B)
(tie) Gary Blackwood, 330,200 (Day 1B)

One thing that isn’t currently available is a player count for the tournament. Late registration is open until the start of action today (12 noon), at which point the prize pool will be determined. The 4900 players from Day 1C, along with the 3250 from the first two Day Ones of the tournament, will guarantee the 2019 WSOP Championship Event will be over 8000 (8150, to be exact) and, if enough people come out of the woodwork, might take a run at the largest WSOP Championship Event in history (2006, 8773 players).